Jack Draper registered a convincing 6-2, 6-2 win against Holger Rune in the final of the Indian Wells Open to claim his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title. The Briton brought his best to the court in the summit clash against the Dane.
Earlier in the tournament, Draper registered wins against two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz and Americans Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz.
“It’s incredible. I wasn’t expecting this,” Draper said moments after his one-hour, nine-minute victory. “I’ve put in a lot of work over time and I’m just so grateful and so happy to be out here to be able to play, my body being healthy, to feel great in my mind. All the work I’ve done over the last few years feels like it’s coming together on the big stage and I can’t put that into words.”
With this victory, the Brit will take the number seven position in the PIF ATP Rankings. Draper said he deserves the top-10 rankings for the first time in his career as he has worked extremely hard to rise through the ranks.
“I feel like I deserve it, in all honestly,” Draper said of the milestone. “The amount of adversity I’ve been through, the amount of sacrifices, the amount of time that all the people around me have put into me and the hard work. It’s an emotional feeling to know how much you’ve gone through and put in, and to be here now to say that I’m going be No. 7 in the world tomorrow, I can’t tell you how much that means to me.”
The left-hander lost only four points on serve and said he approached the game the game well.
“I felt like I came out, I approached the game well. Yesterday I had a few ups and downs during the match, a bit of low energy against Carlos and I learned from that today,” Draper said.
“I knew that Holger was going to come out and be playing some really good tennis, so I needed to be aggressive and play to win from the first ball,” he continued. “I did an amazing job of that and I didn’t allow him to play, and I just felt like I dictated the match really well.”
Draper will look to carry the good form in the Miami Open.
