Rising Brit Draper beats Thiem to book spot in Winston-Salem quarter-finals
Jack Draper will meet the winner of the match between Belarusian Ilya Ivashka, the No 11 seed, and Swiss qualifier Marc-Andrea Huesler in the quarter-finals
Jack Draper at the 2022 National Bank Open in Montreal
Image Credit: AI/ Reuters/ Panoramic
Rising British tennis player Jack Draper added another big name to his list of wins this season as he defeated former world No 3 Dominic Thiem in straight sets to advance to the quarter-finals of the Winston-Salem Open at Wake Forest Tennis Complex on Wednesday.
Draper, seeded No 13, won against the 2020 US Open champion Thiem 6-1, 6-4 in one hour and 20 minutes to set up a last eight clash against either Belarusian Ilya Ivashka, the No 11 seed, or Swiss qualifier Marc-Andrea Huesler.
The big-hitting left-hander slammed eight aces during the win, including one on match point, and did not face a single break point on his serve in the match. He earned 10 break point chances on Thiem’s serve, winning three of those en route to the win.
Thiem is the latest big scalp for Jack Draper
The win marks another step forward for Draper, who has already risen more than 200 spots in the rankings since the start of the season. The 6ft 4 inch tall Brit has moved from No 265 in January to his current ranking of No 55 and is projected to rise to No 52 with his run so far.
Draper defeated Italian Fabio Fognini (6-2, 4-6, 6-1) in the previous round at Winston-Salem and also has wins over Stefanos Tsitsipas, Gael Monfils, Diego Schwartzman, Taylor Fritz, Lorenzo Sonego and Gilles Simon this year.
Winston-Salem ATP 250, last 16 results (Wake Forest Tennis Complex, hard, USD 823.420, most recent results first):
- Ilya Ivashka vs. Marc-Andrea Huesler
- Benjamin Bonzi (10) beat Thiago Monteiro: 7-5, 6-2
- Botic van de Zandschulp (2) beat Jaume Munar (15): 6-3, 6-3
- Maxime Cressy (4) beat Lorenzo Sonego (14): 6-7 (4), 6-2, 7-6 (3)
- Laslo Djere beat Jason Kubler (Q): 7-6 (4), 6-7 (9), 6-3
- Adrian Mannarino beat Albert Ramos-Vinolas (8): 6-3, 6-3
- Richard Gasquet beat Steve Johnson: 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-3
People in this post
More tennis news
Nadal recalls childhood incident that turned out to be a “very important lesson for me”
“There were months when I thought about taking a complete break from tennis to cleanse my mind” – Nadal
“Even a Djokovic can still learn something” – Melzer on the Serb’s partnership with Murray
“Fonseca reminds me of like a mini-Sinner” – Michelsen
“Wasn’t prepared as well for the other things that inevitably do take some energy out of you” – Raducanu
