Gallant Jack Draper beaten by Chun Hsin Tseng in Wimbledon boys' final
Jack Draper fell just short in his bid to become the first British boys’ champion in 56 years but demonstrated enough to suggest that he belongs on the big stage in his 6-1, 6-7, 6-4 defeat to Chun Hsin Tseng of Chinese Taipei.
After being blown away in the first set, Draper regrouped to take the second on a tie-break. The third set swung one way and then the other with five breaks of serve, but Tseng, who produced 24 fewer unforced errors than Draper, showed the greater consistency and sealed the championship with a second-serve ace.
It may not feel this way currently for the 16-year-old but the boys’ title is not a guaranteed springboard to senior success and in many ways can be more of a curse than a blessing with the heightened expectations that it brings.
Draper intends to turn professional immediately. At 6ft 2in, he already has an excellent frame to build upon and looks to have the weapons to prosper in the men’s game. His serve, built around a lovely smooth action, reached a top speed of 126mph, faster than anything Novak Djokovic produced during the tournament, while his forehand is very much of the booming variety.
More than anything it was his temperament that caught the eye. After the horrors of the opening set, Draper could have shrunk into himself. Instead he grew in stature, revelling in the spotlight, engaging in ever more elaborate celebrations. The packed crowd on Court No 1 lapped it up and kept raising the volume to create a partisan atmosphere.
Occasionally he got carried away and after spurning three break points in Tseng’s opening service game of the third set, Draper slammed his racket on the court, which earned him a code violation from the chair empire. Still as Djokovic proved, a bit of fire can be a good thing.
“Having that many people watching me was a surreal feeling,” Draper said. “It took a while to get used to having that many people watch me and there was pressure on me because I was a Brit. I learnt to embrace that in the second set. It gave me confidence. I now feel I am able to do those things and have those celebrations ready.”
Wimbledon 2018 in pictures
It was always going to be a tall order against the No 1 seed and French Open champion, who had won all his matches in straight sets. In contrast, Draper had spent nearly twice as long on court. His last three matches had gone to three sets including the gruelling 7-6, 6-7 19-17 semi-final victory against Nicolas Mejia that lasted four hours 24 minutes, a junior Wimbledon record.
Perhaps because of the lasting effects of that match, the first set was over in a flash. When Draper went 15-40 down in his opening service game of the second set, you feared the worst. Draper, though, regrouped, holding serve and using that as a springboard to break Tseng in the very next game. Even though Draper was broken back in the sixth game, his nerves were definitely settled and he forced the game to a tie-break with a-between-the-legs tweener.
Tseng got the first mini-break after Draper sent a forehand wide. After that aberration, he was on the money with everything, winning seven consecutive points to even the contest up.
The third set was a rollercoaster with three consecutive breaks of serve, but the decisive break came in the ninth game as Draper gave away his serve with a double fault. Tseng held his nerve to serve out the match.
