TOP-RANKED Brit Jack Draper produced an impressive come-from-behind victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Cincinnati Open overnight to book his place in the third round. The Top 30 talent looked on the ropes at different points and even had a stage where the Greek ninth seed was serving for the match, but Draper found a way to survive in a 3-6 6-4 7-5 epic.

In what was just the second time the two players had faced off – Draper won in Canada two years prior – the Brit found himself on the back foot early, unable to create a break from two chances, while Tsitsipas made the most of his only opportunity.

That first set break gave the Greek a handy lead to begin proceedings, with Tsitsipas on fire, winning 17 of 21 first serve points (81 per cent), though his 48 per cent efficiency left a lot to be desired. The signs that Draper was on-song were there too, only dropping one point off his first serve and looking dangerous, but the one break was the ultimate difference.

After not serving an ace in the first set, Draper put down four, and won 15 of 17 first serve points (88 per cent), while Tsitsipas’ dropped to 69 per cent. The Greek was getting more of his first serves in, but so was Draper and therefore break point opportunities were scarce.

In fact, the only break point and subsequent break went the way of Draper which was all he needed to level the scores at a set apiece. Tsitipas soon got back on top with a break to lead 5-4 and serve for the match. However the 10th game of the deciding set proved to be a horror show for the ninth seed.

Tsitsipas went down 0/30 and received a time violation off his first serve, which then resulted in a double fault, followed by a nice Draper winner to level the score back at 5-5. It as the first of three consecutive games for the underdog, who quickly turned around the 4-5 score into a 7-5 win and booked his spot in the Round of 16.

“Since coming from the Olympics I haven’t found my best tennis… but I’ve been trying to find a way and I showed my grit and determination to come through today,” Draper said post-match. “Each day I play and get an opportunity to come out and play again the better I feel. I feel great physically and look forward to keep it going.”

Tsitsipas was his own worst enemy at times, hitting 14 more unforced errors, but even when down he kept fighting back. Draper said being able to break Tsitsipas in the 10th game and come back from the jaws of defeat would do wonders for his confidence.

“Stefanos is such a tough competitor, so I had to be there every point and be ready to compete,” he said. “Losing my service and then coming back in the final three games means the world to me and helps a lot mentally.”

AROUND THE COURTS

American talent Ben Shelton fought back from a match point down in the second set to shake off Tomas Etcheverry in a three-set epic. The match lasted two hours and 52 minutes, with a second set tiebreaker a momentum-swinging series of moments. Shelton had three set points to level the score, only for Etcheverry to win four consecutive points and set up a match point, before Shelton hit back and won the last three to take it 9-7. He would go on and win the last set 6-3 to close out his Round of 32 encounter.

Countryman Brandon Nakashima also posted a win in Round 2, defeating Arthur Fils, while the major upset was Hungarian Fabian Marozsan coming from a set down to upset Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov. Most of the other top seeds all moved into the Round of 16 with Alexander Zverev, Andrey Rublev, Hubert Hurkacz and Holger Rune all-winning.

Flavio Cobolli got past Italian compatriot Luciano Darderi who was unfortunately forced to retire at 7-6 3-1 down, while in other results, Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta knocked out Aussie Max Purcell.