Jack Draper on Monday returned to the ATP Tour after almost six months away with a 7-6 (10-8), 6-3 win over Quentin Halys in the first round of the ATP 500 event in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The Briton in August last year withdrew ahead of the second round of the US Open. His only match since then was a straight-sets victory over Norwegian Viktor Durasovic in the Davis Cup on Feb. 2.
“It feels so good to be out here competing in front of people,” said Draper, who had climbed to No. 4 in the world rankings in June last year and is now at No. 12.
Photo: EPA
“It could have been a little cleaner from my side, but I hadn’t played on the tour for a long time,” he said. “I’ve been craving the feeling of competing for a very long time. It just felt normal. It felt like I was coming back to doing what I love.”
Earlier, top seed Felix Auger-Aliassime needed six match points before dispatching Zhang Zhizhen 6-3, 7-6 (7/4).
“I stopped counting at some point, it was getting too frustrating,” the Canadian said. “Having match points is the position you want to be in as a player, but it’s weird how the mind plays a trick on you. How much further I am from losing than he is, he should be the one that’s tight.”
Auger-Aliassime, the losing finalist in Dubai last season, has reached the final of his past two tournaments this season — winning in Montpellier, France, before losing in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
He was next due to face Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, whose big serve saved him in two tiebreaks as he beat Tunisian Moez Echargui 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/4) for a first tour win since reaching the quarter-finals in Auckland, New Zealand, last month.
The Frenchman hit 29 aces, including one on match point.
Stan Wawrinka continued his farewell tour by beating Benjamin Hassan 7-5, 6-3 with Swiss Davis Cup and Olympic teammate Roger Federer, who won the Dubai event eight times, in the stands.
It was Wawrinka’s 10th tour-level win since turning 40, a record in the Open era.
In the round-of -16 of the men’s doubles, Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan and Shang Juncheng of China rallied from a set down to defeat Hendrik Jebens of Germany and Taiwan’s Ray Ho 4-6, 6-4, 12-10.
Additional reporting by staff writer
NO HARD FEELINGS: Taiwan’s Lin Hsiang-ti and Indonesia’s Dhinda Amartya Pratiwi embraced after fighting to a tense and rare 30-29 final game in their Uber Cup match The Taiwanese men’s team on Wednesday fought back from the brink of elimination to defeat Denmark in Group C and advance to the quarter-finals of the Thomas Cup, while the women’s team were to face South Korea after press time last night in the Uber Cup quarter-finals in Horsens, Denmark. In the first match, Taiwan’s top shuttler Chou Tien-chen faced a familiar opponent in world No. 3 Anders Antonsen. It was their 16th head-to-head matchup, with the Dane taking his fourth victory in a row against former world No. 2 Chou, winning 21-14, 13-21, 21-15 in 1 hour, 22 minutes. The
Marta Kostyuk’s maiden WTA 1000 title in Madrid came on Saturday thanks to her power, poise and a pair of unexpected lucky shorts. The world No. 23 beat eighth-ranked Mirra Andreeva 6-3, 7-5 in under 90 minutes to secure the most prestigious trophy of her career, her third professional singles title and second in less than a month after Rouen. Yet as the 23-year-old Ukrainian posed for photographs at the Caja Magica, it was not just the silverware that caught the eye. Held alongside her team and her two dogs, Kostyuk showed off a piece of black men’s underwear, prompting
Throwing more than US$5 billion at a divisive new tour and walking away after five seasons does not look like good business, but LIV Golf was not all bad news for Saudi Arabia. Oil-funded LIV, which poached top stars and sent golf’s establishment into a tailspin, helped push the conservative kingdom into global view — one of its key aims, experts said. The exit, confirmed on Thursday after weeks of speculation, does not signal a flight of Saudi money from sport, even after the Middle East war that sparked Iranian attacks around the Gulf, they said. “Saudi Arabia is not
Kite-surfing fabrics, car tires and shortened shoelaces helped Kenyan Sabastian Sawe and Adidas crack the two-hour marathon barrier. When Sawe on Sunday shattered one of athletics’ most elusive barriers in storming to victory at the London Marathon in 1 hour, 59 minutes, 30 seconds, it did not come from just physiology and grit, but from design choices drawn from far beyond the course. Sawe debuted Adidas’ lightest-ever racing shoe, the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3. “It starts with the mentality of the athlete, the coach, and the team behind the product, which is: What can we do better? What is the 1 percent
RSS