Potential on show but Draper falls to 19th seed on home soil

Jack Draper showed his huge potential but saw his Wimbledon run end in the second round with defeat by 19th seed Alex De Minaur.

The battle between the former junior finalists saw Australian De Minaur come from a set down to defeat Draper 5-7 7-6 (0) 6-2 6-3 in three hours and two minutes on Court One.

De Minaur joins British girlfriend Katie Boulter, who was watching courtside after her careerbest win over Karolina Pliskova, in the third round while Draper should take huge encouragement from what was a fine contest.

The 20-year-old has been attracting attention beyond these shores for his progress this year and he demonstrated why across two tightly-contested sets full of intense, lung-busting rallies before beginning to fade physically.

The first set was split into two by a lengthy delay for the roof, which had been shut when it was dry earlier, to be belatedly closed as heavy showers circled the All England Club.

De Minaur is one of the best athletes and most consistent hitters out there but Draper more than matched him, wowing the excited crowd with the power of his serve and groundstrokes.

The Londoner already feels he can mix it with the best in the world and, having seen an early break slip away, he got his reward for applying consistent pressure with another in the 11th game.

He then served out the set after an extraordinary rally, the two men pulling each other all around the court before De Minaur finally netted.

Draper then had three chances to break at the start of the second but could not take any and, in hindsight, it was an important opportunity missed.

Two more chances arrived at 3-3 but again De Minaur saved them and, although the Australian – whose Spanish upbringing is very evident in his baseline style – did not create a single opportunity on Draper’s serve, he completely dominated the tie-break.

This was only Draper’s third best-of-five-set match and, with nearly two hours on the clock, the effort began to show at the start of the third.

Draper tried to stay with De Minaur but shots that were coming off in the first two sets flew long or into the net.

He continued to fight with everything he had and tried to retrieve an early break in the fourth but, for this year at least, Draper fell just short.

Rafael Nadal needed four sets to get past Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis.

The Spanish second seed, still on course for a calendar grand slam after his Australian and French Open victories, dropped the third set against the world No 106.

But Nadal wrapped up a 6-4 6-4 4-6 6-3 victory with an ace and will meet Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego in round three.

Nick Kyrgios gave a metaphorical two fingers to his critics by letting his tennis do the talking and racing into the third round.

The Australian was widely condemned for his behaviour during his firstround win over Britain’s Paul Jubb.

Kyrgios had admitted spitting in the direction of a fan who was “disrespecting” him, and called a line judge a “snitch”, in a testy five-set win, the latest in a string of on-court misdemeanours in a controversial career.

It was announced late yesterday Kyrgios had been fined 10,000 US dollars, just over £8,200, for Monday’s transgressions.

But he was on his best behaviour – well, almost, he did moan about a late challenge and a spectator who coughed – as he rolled over Serbian 26th seed and Queen’s Club finalist Filip Krajinovic 6-2 6-3 6-1.

“I guess just from a personal performance standpoint, my performance in my first round was just not where I wanted to be,” said Kyrgios, 27.

“Especially with the way I’ve been playing and the way I’ve been training, the hard work I’ve been doing. I was pretty disappointed in my performance in the first round.

“Then obviously the media’s disrespect and just everything, it was just kind of a reminder to put you all back in your place from the performance today.

“He made finals at Queen’s, top 30 in the world, seeded. It’s a gentle reminder.”

Kyrgios’ victory set up a third-round clash with Greek fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, who was equally as impressive in dispatching Jordan Thompson 6-2 6-3 7-5.

Jack Draper’s run at SW19 has ended.