Jack Draper is through to the last 16 in Madrid after Matteo Berrettini was forced to retire from their third-round contest. The pair were meant to face off on Monday but their match was cancelled and postponed due to the blackout. Draper won a tight opening set in a tiebreak before Berrettini suddenly called it quits.
The former Wimbledon finalist picked up an injury in his second-round match and needed medical treatment. The extra day off before his contest with Draper seemed to be a blessing in disguise for Berrettini. But it still wasn’t enough and, after losing the hour-long set, he couldn’t continue.
Berrettini raised concerns when he took a medical time-out while facing Marcos Giron on Saturday but he recovered, storming through the last set to win 7-6(3) 6-7(6) 6-1. It set up a third career meeting with Draper, who had a 2-0 record against the Italian.
There were fears that Berrettini might not be ready for his contest with Draper but he showed promising signs early on, breaking the Brit in the first game of the match.
The fifth seed in Madrid this week, Draper got back on serve and started to impose himself as Berrettini served to stay in the set twice, saving four set points as he forced a tiebreak.
Draper raced ahead in the breaker, taking it 7-2 and heading to his bench for the changeover. But the world No. 31 was done – he walked towards the Brit and they had a quick chat before shaking hands with the umpire.
The 23-year-old is now through to the last 16, where he will face Tommy Paul. Afterwards, Draper admitted he knew Berrettini’s fitness was in doubt coming into the match.
“I’m aware that he had a problem in his last match towards the end,” the British No. 1 told Sky Sports.
“Matteo is someone who is always so positive and so full of energy and today I noticed that he wasn’t, so maybe that gave away that he was still feeling a bit of something. And his serve power was a bit down.
“As Matteo always does, he competed really hard, he put on a really high level still. I wish him all the best because I’ve gotten to know him a little bit, great guy, obviously a great player too.
“I went a break down in the first game, I didn’t feel like I did so much wrong. Maybe he got a bit lucky on one of the break points, and then I think the key was staying focused, staying present.
“Knowing that even though I was making a few errors at the start, I was still committing to the ball, still committing to my tennis.
“I know if I want to keep on going up the rankings, I’m going to have to trust myself to play the tennis I wanna play so just happy with the way I stuck in it.”
Draper will now be out for revenge when he faces 11th seed Paul, who beat him on home soul last year. He added: “Tommy is a great competitor. Someone who always shows up and plays really well against me.
“We’ve played a few times now,Ii think last time he got me at Queen’s so that hurt a lot so I’m looking forward to this next encounter for sure. Again, someone who I know well, good guy, but obviously when it comes to the tennis, hopefully it’ll be a top match.”