While British star Jack Draper spent the past week trying to find rhythm and comfort in his first grass tournament of the season at the Queen’s Club Championships in London, Jiri Lehecka on Saturday bulldozed everything in his path.
After more than two furious hours of battle, their form was reflected in the final scoreline as Lehecka toppled a frustrated Draper, the second seed, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 to reach the biggest final of his career, against Carlos Alcaraz. Lehecka is also the first Czech to reach the men’s title match at Queen’s since Ivan Lendl lifted the trophy in 1990.
Draper, who would nonetheless be among the top four seeds at Wimbledon as a result of this run, had been struggling with his game and apparent illness this week and revealed he had been diagnosed with tonsillitis.
Photo: Reuters
Draper competed admirably during the tournament, digging deep to find a way through two tough three-set wins over Alexei Popyrin and Brandon Nakashima before putting himself in position to compete for a first grass-court title. He ended with a crushing result.
“I’m obviously very gutted,” Draper said.
“It hurts a bit more because it’s at home. It isn’t the big one, but every match I lose, I take it really hard,” he said.
Photo: Reuters
As Draper’s hopes of competing for his first title on home soil faded in the form of a searing backhand down-the-line winner from Lehecka, which secured the decisive break in the third set, his emotions finally boiled over.
Draper pounded his racket into the LED screen on the side of the court, temporarily disabling a small rectangular part of the screen. In addition to cracking his racket, Draper grazed his knee.
Coincidentally, the screen had been showing an advertisement for Dunlop, his racket sponsor, before it turned black.
Draper made no excuses about his tendency to sometimes lose his composure in the heat of battle, but he views it as a part of his intense competitive nature.
“I don’t want to behave like that, but that’s just the way I am as a competitor. Sometimes I just play on a bit of a tightrope,” he said.
Additional reporting by AFP
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