California [USA], March 17 : British tennis player Jack Draper achieved perhaps the biggest win of his career, beating Holger Rune to secure the Indian Wells title on Sunday night.
Coming clutch in a big match, the 23-year-old displayed the brilliant capability of taking his game to the next level in his first-ever final in the ATP 1000 competition and defeated Rune to win his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title.
After making it to the title clash by overcoming some top-class talent, including defending champion and sensation Carlos Alcaraz, American stars Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz, Draper saved his best for the last and won the match in one hour and nine minutes.
Draper dominated the match with on-point serves and heavily grounded play, keeping Rune on the backfoot. His bouncy baseline strokes kept him in control of rallies.
Following the title win, Draper said that he was not expecting this title win and opened up on the hard work and stress put on his body over the last few years.
"It is incredible. I was not expecting this, I have put in a lot of work over time and I am just so grateful and so happy to be out here to be able to play, my body being healthy, to feel great in my mind. All the work I have done over the last few years feels like it is coming together on the big stage and I cannot put that into words," he said as quoted by ATP's official website.
This is his third ATP Tour title and first on outdoor hard courts. Draper got the rewards for this wonderful outing in the ATP Rankings, where he rose to his career-best number seventh spot in singles competition.
"I feel like I deserve it, in all honestly," Draper said of the milestone. "The amount of adversity I have been through, the amount of sacrifices, the amount of time that all the people around me have put into me and the hard work. It is an emotional feeling to know how much you've gone through and put in, and to be here now to say that I am going be No. 7 in the world, I cannot tell you how much that means to me," he added.
He has now also avenged his 2024 Cincinnati Open quarterfinal loss to Rune and levelled the head-to-head battle to 1-1. Draper is now the fifth British player to have an ATP Masters 1000 title in his hands, joining Murray, Tim Henman, Greg Rusedski and Cameron Norrie, with Norrie the other one to win the Indian Wells.
Rune on the other hand, was playing for his fifth-tour-level title and second ATP Masters 1000 title, having beaten legend Novak Djokovic for the 2022 Paris Masters title.
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