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Jack Draper continued to excel on his return to action by coming out on top in an all-British contest with Jack Pinnington Jones in the second round of the Lexus Eastbourne Open.
Playing only his second match in nearly two months, after recovering from a shoulder injury suffered in Barcelona in April, Draper built on his strong showing in the first round on the south coast, where he defeated Marcos Giron, by beating Pinnington Jones 7-5, 6-4 in one hour and 30 minutes.
With three-time Grand Slam champion and former world number one Andy Murray watching from the stands at sun-baked centre court, having joined Draper’s coaching team last month, the 24-year-old builds momentum and, more importantly, confidence ahead of Wimbledon next week.
Recording just his third win over a top-100 player in the first round against Marco Trungelliti, there will be plenty of positives for Pinnington Jones as he now prepares for an appearance in the singles main draw at Wimbledon after being rewarded with a wildcard – and Draper had a lot of praise for his good friend.
“Jack’s a great friend, so it’s tough playing against a friend. He’s still young and he’s been building his way up the rankings,” he said, speaking on court after his match.
“I believe he’s going to be a top, top player and I think he showed that today. It’s really tough to play against him.”
Asked about building momentum at Eastbourne after a challenging 12 months, he added: “My confidence levels were below the floor a couple of weeks ago, I hadn’t played in a long time, I wasn’t match fit, so to come here and be competing and playing at a high level very quickly I’m very grateful.
“I’ve spent a lot of time off court with injury, I was on a great trajectory last year being at a career high ranking of four and my body stopped me in my tracks. I wasn’t able to play and the last year has been really difficult.”
Looking to make a positive start at Devonshire Park, the former British number one broke the 23-year-old in just his second game and raced into a 5-4 lead with the opportunity to serve out for the first set, but Pinningto Jones recovered well to break back and bring it back on serve.
However, Draper responded immediately to break Pinnington Jones’ serve once again before making sure to serve out the set this time to take a foothold in the encounter.
The former US Open semi-finalist kicked off the second with an immediate break of Pinnington Jones’ serve and kept his foot on the gas from that point onwards, winning 78% of points behind his serve while never giving up a break point opportunity as he secured his spot in the last eight of the tournament.
He will join two more Brits at that stage of the ATP 250 event after Jan Choinski and Toby Samuel reached their first ATP Tour level quarter-final earlier in the day.
Elsewhere, Giles Hussey’s journey at Eastbourne came to an end after a 1-6, 5-7 defeat to Frenchman Quentin Halys.
