No Andy Murray? No problem for Jack Draper.
The British No3 continued his winning run under the his new coach with a stylish 6-1 6-4 victory over Canadian giant Gabriel Diallo to move into the semi-finals of the Eastbourne Open, his first tournament since April.
Draper, 24, has been plagued by injury in the last 12 months, with a bone condition in his arm and knee tendonitis seeing him drop as low as No160 in the ATP rankings.
His last appearance at the Barcelona Open saw him suffer another setback, as he was forced to hand Tomas Etcheverry a walkover in the first round.
But now, he is back and seemingly, in full flow and good spirits, after admitting that he had felt trapped in an “asylum” during his rehabilitation period off the court.
The Briton is eyeing a statement return at his home Grand Slam, Wimbledon, next week, where he was knocked out in the second round despite being the No4 seed last year.
He was bested by the crafty Croat Marin Cilic, who produced a stunning display to oust the home favourite on Court No1, but Draper is hoping to build some momentum before he takes to the All England Club in a few days’ time.
He has sought out former British No1 Murray as his new coach after parting company with Jamie Delgado, and the Scot will be sat in Draper’s box for all his matches across the coming fortnight.
Murray, however, was not present for the Eastbourne quarter-final against Diallo, despite watching his new project dispatch of Marcos Giron and Jack Pinnington Jones in his first games of his reign.
Draper told reporters afterwards that Murray had other commitments to attend to, instead leaving the on-court coaching to other members of Draper’s team - existing coach James Trotman, James Padfield, his strength and conditioning coach, and his physio Shane Annun, who worked with Murray for a decade.
“I asked him to work with me a month or so ago,” Draper said of Murray.
“He had some charitable commitments in his diary and today it was one of those days, but he’ll likely be back again tomorrow. He watched my whole match.”
Murray’s courtside absence raised questions that he may not be a presence in Draper’s box at Wimbledon, but the 2024 US Open semi-finalist allayed those concerns.
“Today was a one-off,” he explained. “He’s Andy Murray - he is who he is, and he had a commitment that he couldn’t get out of.”
Draper will face Ugo Humbert in the last four on the Sussex coast, as he seeks a fourth tour-level title of his career.
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