Indian Wells Open: Jack Draper makes ‘overwhelmed’ confession after beating Novak Djokovic
Jack Draper scored one of the biggest wins of his career in the fourth round of the Indian Wells Open as he beat tennis great Novak Djokovic for the first time in his career.
Draper was only nine years old when Djokovic became world No 1 for the first time in his career with a dominant 2011 season, and more than a decade later, the Serbian remains one of the best players in the world.
The 24-time Grand Slam winner is currently third in the ATP Rankings and finished runner-up to Carlos Alcaraz at the Australian Open.
Draper is the defending champion in Indian Wells following his stunning run last year, but he has struggled with injury the past year and has slipped to No 14 in the rankings.
But the British No 1 produced a scintillating performance to secure a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) victory over a player he idolises.
“It was a crazy match. I think both of us gave it our all. I think from my side, started off, like, a bit passive, and then as the match went on, I definitely was able to be more aggressive, you know, take control of the points on my terms,” he explained.
“Just overwhelmed to obviously beat Novak, someone I have watched and admired and idolised since I was a kid. Just very grateful to be in this situation and go again tomorrow.”
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Draper served for the match at 4-6, 6-4, 5-4, but he soon found himself 0-40 down and, even though he saved the first break point, Djokovic eventually made it 5-5.
“That game went very quickly, obviously. Not ideal, by any means. I think I will blame a little bit there the time I’ve had out of the game on that one,” he said.
“It’s one thing obviously serving out a match against a top player, but when it’s Novak, it’s even more difficult, like I said in the first question, someone I have been watching since I was a kid.
“When you’re kind of serving out matches, especially at this level, you kind of have something to go by by your last matches or last tournaments, so I haven’t really had that.
“More than anything, I’m proud of the way I was able to regroup. I played a good game at 6-5 on my serve and played a good tiebreak, as well. So that’s something I can be proud of, and I’ll obviously take the experience of what happened at 5-4 and use that for what’s to come.”
The rally of the match was undoubtedly at the start of the decider with Djokovic serving at 30-30 as they ended up slugging it out for 26 points.
Djokovic won that particular race as he won the point and held serve, but Draper ended up winning the marathon as he broke one game later.
“I think it was a really important point, because I felt like it’s not easy to do four big sprints in a point. You know, I think the dropshots I hit were decent. So dropshot-lob, it was like a conditioning session in that point, and it was already a physical match at that point,” he stated.
“I felt the repercussions of that point, and I knew the next point again I had to be really, really solid to back it up. I felt like that set the tone for the set for me, for sure, even though I lost the point.
“Saying that, you never know. Novak, he’s going to come and, you know, he’s always going to be at you. It was a lot of fun, a lot of good points in there. Full respect for him, yeah.”
