Jack Draper has played modestly in 2025 while managing a difficult hip injury that had been on the sidelines for most of the preseason.
Faced with a difficult challenge for the most hyped teenagers in the men's game, Draper opened the tournament at the Indian Wells, completely neutralising Joan Fonseca's great ball, reaching the third round with a 6-4, 6-0 victory.
The 13th seed, Draper, stepped into a courtroom in the California desert. Fonseca was a breakout star this year. He grabbed the headlines of Andreil Brev at the Australian Open last month by winning his first ATP title at the age of 18 in Buenos Aires.
After a rough victory over British Jacob Fianley in the first round, he began dialing in the contest as Draper tried to find his foot after receiving a goodbye in the first round.
In a short time on the tour, Fonseca established himself as one of the most destructive shot makers in the game. However, throughout the opening set, Draper beautifully neutralised the Brazilian with his defense, flipping the myriad points from defense to attack, while eliciting a wealth of forced errors from Fonseca with his search skills.
With the opening set secured, the draper opened his shoulders and produced one of the best sets of the year to round out his best victory so far. After that, the Draper endured the admiration of his opponents and said, “To be part of it, to play against him, to see what it is, it's really special to me. I saw it – he's such a great talent, he slams the ball so hard, he just improves. There's more experience at this level and he'll really become the top top player right away.”
Draper enjoys the unusual start of the season as he is trying to consolidate his position at the top of the sport after a great breakthrough season last year. The Indian Wells was just the third tournament of the season due to his hip injury. With so little rhythm, the 23-year-old wasn't able to always summon his best offensive tennis, but he showed his toughness by fighting brilliantly and continuously finding a way to win.
After fiercely fighting in the fourth round of the Australian Open, after winning three consecutive five sets of matches, Draper reached the Doha ATP 500 Final, becoming tougher from behind the victory. As he tries to mark the so-called “Sunshine Double” for the first time in his career, with Indian Wells and Miami, Draper heads for the third round in 2025 with a solid 8-2 victory record.
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“It really feels good,” he said. “I had some issues with the backend last year and early this year. When I played last year, I got consistency, so it was tough. I lost a few first rounds and a few second rounds so I was able to train and go again. Meanwhile, at the beginning of this year, I played many marathon matches this year and then in Doha I played five more matches at the highest level. I'm getting there, but it was just important to get it right at the start of the season.”
Draper then faced US Jenson Brooksby, retracting a 6-4, 6-2 excellent victory over Canada's 17th seed Felix Auger Alicim.
