With his presence at the French Open hanging desperately in the balance, Jack Draper stepped up to the baseline, down two sets to one, hoping he would begin the new set with a clean slate to initiate his resurgence. Instead, he could only watch on helplessly as his opponent threaded four outlandish winners to break his serve to love.
It was that kind of evening for Draper, the fifth seed in Paris, who was thoroughly outplayed by a stupendous performance from the unseeded Alexander Bublik. The Kazakhstani held his nerve in front of an ebullient Court Suzanne Lenglen crowd to close out an immense 5-7, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 win and reach a grand slam quarter-final for the first time in his career.
Against an opponent who seemed to be able to do anything he wanted with the ball, Draper just could not keep up. As his first serve crumbled, he lost confidence in his forehand and retreated into his shell.
Bublik has shown throughout his career that he can play quality tennis, but sustaining such an incredible level across the best of five sets against one of the leading players in the world is another question altogether. Somehow, he just kept on going. “I don’t play many matches where I feel like it’s almost out of my control what’s going on, and he made that happen today,” Draper said.
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“That’s what top players do. They make you feel extremely uncomfortable, and they make you feel like you can’t do much. He did that today.”
Bublik finished the match with 37 drop‑shot attempts, hitting 12 clean winners behind them alone. He also struck 68 winners compared to 37 from Draper. “He missed hardly any [drop shots],” Draper said. “They were all incredibly good. It’s tough, because you know that’s coming, but yet he can unload on the forehand as well. You just don’t know what to do.”
Considering the momentum Draper had built and positivity surrounding him in Paris, this will be an incredibly tough defeat for him to digest. He sees himself competing for these titles, not merely reaching the second week. However, after starting this season simply seeking his first breakthrough on red clay, he ended this period having won numerous matches, beaten quality players and established himself as a true threat. This loss will simply form another part of his development.
“I’m hurt, and for sure I’m really disappointed,” the 23-year-old said. “I had an opportunity today, and I missed my opportunity, for sure. I struggle to put things in perspective, but I think I am proud of the effort I’ve done on the clay. I think I’ve really improved. I think last year I was leaving here, first-round loss, being 40 in the world and very disappointed with my tennis and not sure, you know, where I was going with it. This year I’m leaving No 5 in the world.”
Bublik’s next opponent is none other than Jannik Sinner, the Italian world No 1, who continued his bid for a fourth grand slam title with a 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 victory against the Russian 17th seed Andrey Rublev.
