Jack Draper, the 16-year-old British player who won the second leg of the Lagos Open International Tennis Championships, was a losing finalist at the 2018 Junior Wimbledon Open, Nigerian Tennis Live fact checks have revealed.
Draper was an outstanding player during his match against Tom Jomby from the United States in the Men’s Singles final, defeating the American top seed in the final set. He won 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 to a loud ovation by the cheering spectators.
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| Draper receives his trophy from the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, after emerging as winner of the Lagos Open International Tennis Championships on Saturday, 13 October, 2018. |
Ranked as the ninth best junior player in the world, Draper had won two Futures tournaments in Britain before attending the event in Lagos, and showed how great a player he is when he defeated Jomby, the tournament’s number one seed, in the final.
Nigerian Tennis Live fact checks revealed that the player who started his tennis career at the age of three, was a losing finalist at the 2018 Junior Wimbledon Open against Tseng Chun-Hsin in a match that lasted over two hours.
The British youngster was playing against the tournament’s top seed and would have become the first Briton to win the Wimbledon juniors in ten years, but for the loss which also came in three sets. Chun-Hsin won 6-1, (2)6-7, 6-4. It was a very nervy encounter.
Observers believe that with this track record of the youngster’s and his continuous rise in tennis, it will not be too long before he joins the likes of Borna Coric, a former winner of the Lagos Open formerly known as Governor’s Cup Lagos Championship.
Nigerian Tennis Live will keep monitoring the activities of the player and see how well the Lagos Open Championship will serve as a pedestal for the player to move onto something even bigger and better.