Draper hails ‘Emma effect’ as the home hopes surge
British tennis is enjoying its best start to Wimbledon in 25 years, after nine players made it through to the second round at the All England
Club – equalling the number who progressed to the round of 64 in singles in 1997.
Harriet Dart, who had her firstround match postponed due to poor light, could well make it 10 today if she wins, which would mark Great Britain’s best showing since 1984.
The positive news comes in the wake of Emma Raducanu’s remarkable US Open victory in New York last summer, which many British players have cited as an inspiration to their seasons thus far.
Jack Draper said watching Raducanu and company in action at the All England Club had inspired his straight sets dispatching of Belgium’s Zizou Bergs yesterday.
“I watched a bit of Emma [Raducanu] and Andy [Murray], I thought they played amazing on Centre Court,” he said after the 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 win, his first at a major. “This morning I’ve been able to watch a bit of Ryan [Peniston] win on the same court I was on, because I was obviously keeping track of his match to see what time I potentially go on. Definitely, seeing them win fired me up and I was ready to go.”
Draper impressed last year, when he took a set off Novak Djokovic on Centre Court in the first round.
This grass-court season he has grown into his own though, reaching his first ATP semi-final at Eastbourne last week and scoring top-20 scalps on the way. He will need another underdog win over 19th-seed Alex de Minaur tomorrow if he wants to progress. His win yesterday was one of six from British players. Wild card and cancer survivor Peniston was the standout story of the day, overcoming Swiss player Henri Laaksonen in straight sets, 6-4 6-3, 6-2. But world No 135 Peniston, 26, has overcome
bigger challenges in his life. He was diagnosed with a rare soft-tissue cancer when he was just a year old, and the chemotherapy he underwent affected his growth. Decades on, he is enjoying the best moment of his career so far.
“It’s been such a long journey, and difficult,” he said. “I think after the tournament, I’m definitely going to celebrate with my family. I think it’s been unexplainable, the feelings that I have, thinking about the past times and where I’ve been able to get to now.” Of his cancer survival, he added: “It had a huge impact for me, it’s such a terrible thing to go through, especially for my family, my close friends. It gives me so much strength.”
In recent weeks he reached the quarter-finals at Nottingham, Queen’s and Eastbourne – the latter two serving as his debut tour-level events. Those runs helped him earn an unlikely Wimbledon wild card. Peniston faces world No93 Steve Johnson, of the United States, next in the second round.
His soon-to-be housemate Alastair Gray will join him there, as he also picked up his first maindraw victory at Wimbledon. Ranked 288th, Gray beat Tseng Chun-hsin 6-3, 6-3, 7-6, while Katie Boulter beat France’s Clara Burel 7-5, 6-3.
It was not all good news though. British No2 Dan Evans lost 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 to Australian qualifier Jason Kubler.