Jack Draper sweeps aside teenager Joao Fonseca to reach French Open fourth round
The British number one out-thought and outmuscled his 18-year-old opponent, thudding 32 winners in a commanding 6-2 6-4 6-2 victory in just an hour and 46 minutes.
'I played good, the first set was really key,' he said. 'I got on top of him and used my forehand really well.
YES JACK!! 😍🔥
What a stunning performance from @jackdraper0 who books his spot in the last 16 at @rolandgarros#BackTheBrits 🇬🇧 | #RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/Ale45pK6yn
— LTA (@the_LTA) May 31, 2025
'Mentally it was a good performance from me today. I'm happy to be in the second week here and hopefully there's more to come.'
Fonseca is a precocious talent who brings a huge, noisy contingent of supporters from his homeland wherever he goes.
There were fans in the famous yellow football shirts dotted all around Court Suzanne-Lenglen and they were making themselves heard throughout the early stages.
But Draper, who dealt with a partisan crowd when he beat 38-year-old Frenchman Gael Monfils on Thursday night, dampened the South American enthusiasm as he raced away with the first set in just half-an-hour.
Draper dominated the second, although he did have to save a break point with an ace as he served for it, before a Fonseca error sealed the deal.
A relentless Draper kept the pressure on in the third, breaking in the first game after a punishing rally to take a decisive lead.
The fifth seed's victory was sealed when a demoralised Fonseca could only plant a return apologetically into the net.
'My first two rounds, I played at night,' added Draper. 'Playing against Gael the other night, I didn't think I could hit the ball past him.
A first Roland-Garros to be proud of!
See you next year, Joao 💫 pic.twitter.com/3N6JKqaif5
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) May 31, 2025
'It was so cold and I couldn't really do much but today the ball was getting up more and the faster conditions definitely suit me. Either way, I will be ready for my next round.
'Joao has caught the attention of everyone on tour, the players and the fans. Today my experience came through.
'I don't think he has played as many grand slams as I have but he has got an unbelievably bright future so all the best to him.'
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The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Jack Draper vs Alexander Bublik start time: When is French Open match?
Jack Draper will look to book his spot in the quarter-finals of the French Open as he takes on Alexander Bublik at Roland Garros. The British No 1 was in outstanding form as he swept aside talented teenager Joao Fonseca in a potentially problematic third-round encounter, with Draper really finding his feet on the surface during this clay-court swing. He will be fully aware of the threat that Bublik might pose, though, with the Kazakh already having dumped out ninth seed Alex de Minaur since arriving in Paris. Draper has won the pair's two previous tour meetings but is yet to take on the former top-20 player on clay, and the unpredictable big server could yet spring a shock in a match that promises plenty. Here's everything you need to know: What time is Jack Draper vs Alexander Bublik? Draper vs Bublik is the final match scheduled on Court Suzanne-Lenglen on Monday 2 June at the French Open. It will follow the conclusion of Madison Keys's all-American battle with Hailey Baptiste and could begin around 5.30pm or 6pm, though the exact time will depend on how quickly the three preceding matches are concluded. French Open order of play - Monday 2 June (from 10am BST) Court Suzanne-Lenglen Mirra Andreeva [6] vs Daria Kasatkina [17] Alexander Zverev [3] vs Tallon Griekspoor Madison Keys [7] vs Hailey Baptiste Alexander Bublik vs Jack Draper [5] Is it on TV and how can I watch? Yes, the match will be on TV, with viewers in the United Kingdom able to watch the French Open on TNT Sports. A live stream will be available to subscribers via the discovery+ app or website.
Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
Jack Draper's four key strengths recall ‘King of Clay' Rafael Nadal
It all feels rather neat. As one left-hander with a nuclear forehand leaves the stage – via Rafael Nadal's touching farewell ceremony at Roland Garros last week – another is emerging from the pack. That second man is 23-year-old Jack Draper, the Surrey lad who has turned himself from an also-ran at this time last year to a proper contender, with his ranking closing in on No 4 in the world. It would be going too far to suggest that Draper is Nadal's heir apparent. He had barely seen a clay court until he reached voting age, and is still developing his relationship with this quirkiest of surfaces. But when you sat behind the court during Saturday's third-round match, in which Draper destroyed Brazilian wunderkind Joao Fonseca with his dive-bombing forehand, you found yourself in flashback territory. Telegraph Sport analyses the striking similarities. The Semtex forehand It's all about the trajectory. When the ball comes looping off Draper's racket, it looks as if it's flying into the next postcode. But then the top-spin grips, and the ball starts hurtling back towards the ground like Wile E Coyote after his legs have stopped spinning. On so many occasions in the Fonseca match, Draper's forehand dipped and landed in the final six inches of the court, before exploding upwards again at a sharp angle. As an opponent, you have two choices, and neither of them are good ones. 1. You can retreat way behind the baseline, and wait for the ball to come down at the end of its first bounce. Now you've become a passenger in the rally. You're giving Draper an age to wind up his shots and make decisions, while opening up the angles for him to push you left and right at will. 2. You can step in and take the ball early, but this requires perfect timing as it jumps off the court like a startled cat. Should Draper come through Monday's meeting with Alexander Bublik, he would probably earn a quarter-final with world No 1 Jannik Sinner. And the big question is whether Sinner – owner of the tour's smoothest groundstrokes – can pull off this feat regularly. So what does Draper himself think of the forehand comparison? 'It's tough for me to appreciate it because I'm the one hitting the ball,' he replied. 'But I see it when I'm on YouTube watching the highlights. I can appreciate it is getting better and better but I watch Rafa sometimes and I'm thinking, his forehand's a joke. So I want to get to that level but I definitely understand the comparison of how it's kicking up and the spin and the speed of it.' Draper 💥 #RolandGarros — Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) May 29, 2025 Draper's deft dropper If people don't remember Nadal as a drop-shot artiste, that's because they were distracted by his world-beating forehand. In fact, he was a master at shoving people back with that same high, heavy trajectory that Draper employs, and then popping the ball into the empty forecourt with minimal fuss. Draper has been developing the same tactic during this tournament. He used six drop shots in round one against Mattia Bellucci, 12 in round two against Gaël Monfils, and no fewer than 15 against Fonseca. Is Draper simply learning on the job, like some tennis intern? Perhaps, but he may also be tailoring his approach to the opponent. Where Bellucci remained fleet-flooted throughout, Monfils started cramping early in Thursday's match, and the 18-year-old Fonseca showed his physical immaturity. 'Do me a favour,' yelled a frustrated John McEnroe on commentary after a tiring Fonseca had declined to chase another short ball. 'Could you at least try for those?' Built like a rugby player 'Rafa is a physical freak,' said Mark Petchey, now Emma Raducanu's coach, when Telegraph Sport interviewed him for a long read on the Nadal forehand in 2021. Here was another under-rated virtue of the King of Clay. He made generating massive forces look so comfortable that few realised how hard he worked on every shot. But his injury-wracked career was testament to the strain he placed on his body, especially by comparison with Roger Federer's more classical, lower-impact style. Draper is a bigger man. At 6ft 4in and pushing 14 stone, he is probably the burliest figure in the world's top 20, with the build of a rugby flank-forward. Seeing him loom over Fonseca at Saturday's coin-toss, the phrase 'man and boy' came immediately to mind. Size has its drawbacks. Draper has already collected more serious injuries than most players his age. And if he is taken to five sets by Sinner on a hot day, one suspects that he might tire first, despite his unsparing approach to fitness training. Yet Draper's physicality is also a weapon. Not only does he intimidate opponents, but he has also outworked them over the first three rounds of this French Open. Even Bellucci, who stayed the course better than Fonseca and Monfils, looked weary by the end. At just 5ft 9in, he had to keep jumping up to meet that high-bouncing forehand somewhere near his strike zone, and all the effort drained the energy from his legs. When asked this week about the inspiration he takes from Nadal, Draper replied: 'It's partly about his game but more so his competitive nature, his doggedness, his ability to never go away. Andy [Murray] is the same but I loved Rafa to be honest, the grunt, everything. He was someone who massively inspired me to become the player I am and hopefully I can get to his level.' Relentless focus There's another reason why Nadal was able to accumulate such extraordinary statistics at Roland Garros (14 titles), Monte Carlo (11), Barcelona (12) and Rome (10). He was playing on the surface that rewards incremental superiority, stroke by punishing stroke. On hard courts, you can recover from the corners more easily in defence, and you can try to counterpunch your way out of trouble. Clay is all about building a positional advantage, which often means creeping forwards during a rally until the whole court is at your mercy. People think that Nadal hit spectacular shots, but he actually hated taking risks, and only did so when he had no alternative. It is a model that both Draper and Cameron Norrie – the other British left-hander who has reached the fourth round here in Paris – are learning from. 'I was able to play consistent kind of vintage Norrie tennis,' said Norrie on Saturday night, after defeating Draper's fellow Briton and great junior rival Jacob Fearnley. 'Just playing seven out of 10 for 3½ hours.' We have already addressed Draper's physicality, but his mentality is equally as important. Asked this week about facing a succession of mercurial opponents, he replied: 'Being a consistent player is something I've wanted to achieve for a while now and I think I'm doing it better and better. I don't need to play my best level to win matches because I know my base level is high. 'If I'm able to play point by point I know it's tough for guys to beat me. Especially someone if they're up and down, like Monfils or Bublik, they're gonna play some great tennis and, yes, they could beat me for sure. But I know it's going to be very tough because I'm always going to be at that level.' According to Jez Green – who used to be Andy Murray's fitness trainer – the ideal clay-court mindset has an element of masochism, because anyone who comes out on this slow surface and tries to fire winners in all directions is unlikely to prevail. 'Rafa's mindset is perfect because he enjoys the whole experience of suffering,' said Green. 'He loves that clay-court feeling of building points slowly, churning out victories through sheer effort, taking the long way around.' So if Draper is going to continue his heroics next week, he will need to keep embracing the grind.
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Jack Draper's ready to fire more forehand bullets as he channels Rafael Nadal at the French Open - but his next opponent is riding high after a Las Vegas bender
As the new plaque of his footprint on Court Philippe Chatrier demonstrates, Rafael Nadal 's legacy at Roland Garros is eternal. His inspiration can be traced through the next generation - including our very own Jack Draper and his brutal forehand. The similarities in the two men's strokes are impossible to miss. The coiling of musclebound shoulders. The whiplash swing of a left arm, sending the ball fizzing through the air to land, grip on the clay then spit towards the opponent at head height. Draper has until now been hesitant to embrace the comparison. 'It's hard for me to look at my own forehand,' said the 23-year-old, who faces Alexander Bublik today in his first visit to the fourth round of the French Open. 'I can appreciate it's getting better and better but I still watch Rafa and… his forehand's a joke. But I definitely understand the comparison of how it's kicking up and the spin and the speed of it.' Like Nadal, Draper uses the height and spin of his forehand to push opponents back, leaving them vulnerable to the drop shot - a one-two punch which was incredibly effective in his third-round victory over Joao Fonseca. Draper's forehand lacks the curl of Nadal's, meaning it is harder for him to replicate the classic Rafa pattern of swinging the ball away from the right-hander's backhand. That lack of swing is not all downside, though - as Nadal's forehand angled away from the backhand side, it angled into the forehand side, making it easier for opponents to cover that space. Draper can fire a more direct arrow down the line. As a fellow right-hander who plays leftie, Nadal was a touchstone for young Draper. When I visited his first tennis club in Sutton last year, members told stories of young Jack playing in sleeveless tops to look more like Rafa. 'I modelled myself on his game but more so his competitive nature, his doggedness,' said Draper. 'I loved Rafa - the grunt, everything. He massively inspired me to become the player I am and hopefully I can get to his level.' If Draper has internalised Nadal's Stakhanovite work ethic, the same cannot be said of his next opponent, who puts his recent uptick in form down to a three-day bender in Las Vegas. Bublik is one of the great talkers in the game, so let's allow him the floor to explain how he went from a career high to a career low, then recovered. 'After Wimbledon 2024, I got to No 17 in the world,' he began. 'Then I'm like, "OK, I have to practise harder". Work on my diet, stop drinking, stop partying. 'Be a more professional soldier. Right now everybody is like robots, crazy, crazy performance guys. My fall was not linked with lack of attitude and lack of practising. It was the exact opposite. I just burned out. 'Then it was the other way around. I was No 80 in the world. My coach suggested a trip to Vegas in between Indian Wells and Phoenix. 'I said, OK, let's go to Vegas, and it worked.' To clarify, was this a training trip to Vegas? 'No, Vegas Vegas, like The Hangover Vegas,' said Bublik, referencing the 2009 stag-party-gone-wrong comedy film. The 27-year-old went straight from Nevada to Phoenix, Arizona, for a lower-tier Challenger event. He made the final, and then won his next Challenger in Turin. 'I came there to win,' said Bublik. 'I have to take matches more seriously, and I did. It's as simple as that. There was a shift in the mentality because I had no options whatsoever.' On his last-16 opponent, Bublik said: 'Jack, for me, is insane. I saw him here and I said, "Are you getting ready for UFC?" 'Last year the guy is No 40 in the world. This year he is top five. That's a crazy achievement. He doesn't seem to stop. 'What do I have to do to beat him? I don't know. I will just go there, enjoy the time - we all know what I'm capable of doing on court.' The Kazakhstani is capable of almost anything. If his array of tweeners, underarm serves and general zaniness gives the impression of a man messing around, Bublik insists he is just maximising his chances of victory against the 'robots'. 'I'm not a fighting person,' said Bublik. 'To win against the best of the best, I have to find ways to outplay them because they will outwork me, outrun me. 'Against Jack, I'm not capable physically of running for five hours. I would die, literally. I'm worrying about my health over tennis. So I find a way to beat these guys with what I have - and I have a lot, in terms of an arsenal of shots. Sometimes I have to go for what seem like crazy shots, but this is the only option I have.' If Draper needs reminding of how dangerous the world No 62 can be, he could ask Alex de Minaur. The No 9 seed took a two-set lead over Bublik in the second round before being blown away in 90 minutes of lights-out shotmaking. Draper has tuned up nicely for this test, riding out similar purple patches from Mattia Bellucci and Gael Monfils in the first and second rounds. 'I don't need to play my best to win matches because my base level is high,' said Draper. 'If I play point by point at that level, it's tough for guys to beat me. 'Especially if they're up and down, like Monfils or Bublik. They're gonna play some great tennis and they could beat me for sure, but I know it's going to be very tough (for them) because I'm always going to be at that level.' Sentiments of which Rafa would be proud.
