Draper into first ATP tour final in Sofia
Britain’s Jack Draper reached his first ATP Tour final by beating Jan-Lennard Struff at the Sofia Open and extending his winning streak to nine matches.
The 21-year-old, who won last week’s ATP Challenger Tour event in Bergamo, Italy, won 6-3 6-4 against the German.
Draper will face France’s Adrian Mannarino or Russian Pavel Kotov in Saturday’s final in Bulgaria.
He is the youngest British man to reach a tour final since Andy Murray, at the same age, in Miami 14 years ago.
Draper has been building momentum in recent weeks in what has been a promising season that has included reaching the last 16 of the US Open in September.
He had already knocked out top seed Lorenzo Musetti of Italy in the last 16 in Sofia, before another composed performance against third seed Struff to reach the final without dropping a set.
The Briton recovered immediately from an early break to string together back-to-back breaks that sent him on his way to taking the opening set.
He was similarly under pressure at the start of the second set but fended off five break points in his first two service games to stay level with his opponent until he created the key break in the seventh game to pull clear. He served out the win three games later, sealing it on his third match point.
Draper’s season had been disrupted by injury but he has come back from a shoulder problem to demonstrate his exciting potential, with his good form also coming at a perfect time for Great Britain’s Davis Cup quarter-final later this month.
He is in the squad for the tie against Serbia in Spain on 23 November, which is being shown live on BBC Sport.