Jack Draper shared his thoughts on Brazilian player Joao Fonseca following their third-round match at the French Open, where Draper secured a 6/2, 6/4, 6/2 victory.
Draper highlighted the remarkable fact that Fonseca is only 18 years old. “I`m 23… And he`s already approaching the Top 50 and doing incredible things,” he said.
He added that matches like theirs significantly aid Fonseca`s development. “He just needs time, but looking at how he`s playing now, it`s a bit scary to think what he could achieve,” Draper continued.
Draper also emphasized that Fonseca still needs to improve physically. He explained, “Competing with Top 100 players and beating them in three sets is very difficult, especially when you have very little experience at this level. He needs to go through that development phase. The key to my comfortable wins in our two matches is that I weathered his initial onslaught, and he felt he needed to do more. And that`s when you see he`s still young and physically not fully ready for that kind of effort. Everything he does from here will only be improvement.”
Speaking about his own performance at the Parisian major, Draper stated: “I`m very happy with my level of play and consistency. Closing out the second set the way I did was important; beating such a promising player is very good for me. I realized I had some physical issues maintaining intensity in long rallies and coming forward, so I used drop shots whenever I could step into the court after big baseline shots. I never practice drop shots, but it`s a natural shot that I think is very useful in different situations, like coming to the net after a serve. I feel very comfortable on clay and have gained a lot of confidence,” Draper said at the Roland Garros press conference.
In the next round of the tournament, Jack Draper will face Kazakhstani tennis player Alexander Bublik. The match is scheduled for June 2nd.
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