On Wednesday afternoon in Indian Wells, British No 1 Jack Draper produced the sort of performance you can go through a career searching for.
Up against Taylor Fritz – the 2022 champion here, and a finalist at last year’s US Open – Draper found the fabled “zone” that tennis players speak of in hushed tones.
Every ball seemed to come zipping out of the centre of his strings as he brushed aside the world No 4 by a 7-5, 6-4 scoreline, setting up a first visit to the quarter-finals at this prestigious event.
His next opponent will be an American like Fritz, and a big-serving lefty like himself: 11th seed Ben Shelton.
Draper had said after his previous win, over yet another American in Jenson Brooksby, that the ball “is not quite coming off the racket the way I want it to but I’ll try to get better for the next round.”
How he delivered on that promise. Ripping the ball with fearless abandon on both his serve and his forehand, Draper needed only 78 minutes to send Californian local Fritz – who is the third seed here – trudging off what is effectively his home court.
The crucial phase of the match was the seven-game streak that took Draper from 5-4 down in the first set to 4-0 up in the second. During this golden spell, his ball-striking was so clean and his movement so slick that Fritz became rattled and lost his own trusty forehand completely.
Serving for the match at 5-2 up in the second set, Draper seemed to wake up slightly from his inspired trance. A few small errors crept in and he was broken for the only time in the match.
But it didn’t take long for him to regroup and relocate the corners of the service box. He lost only three points behind his first serve all match, and has yet to drop a set in the tournament.
“I felt great,” Draper told Jill Craybas in his on-court interview. “That’s the best match I’ve played here so far, in the three years I’ve been coming. I was sharp, I moved great, I competed well.
“I was building amazing stuff at the end of last year, then had a bit of a break at the start of this year when I was injured, but with all those problems, the way I’ve adjusted my schedule [by skipping the Davis Cup in Japan and also the most recent big ATP event in Dubai] has really helped me. The hard work is paying off.”
Earlier, Sonay Kartal’s wonderful run had come to an end at the hands of world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka, who was just too strong in a routine 6-1, 6-2 victory.
Nevertheless, Kartal’s three victories in the desert have boosted her 20 places up the rankings chart to No 63 in the world: a spectacular reward for a woman who lost narrowly in qualifying, but received a last-minute reprieve when Sloane Stephens withdrew from the main draw with an injured foot.
