Britain’s Jack Draper secured the big prize money cheque of his fledgling career after he stormed to victory in the Ultimate Tennis Showdown Grand Final in London.
Making his debut in the fast-paced version of tennis masterminded by super-coach Patrick Mouratoglou, Draper highlighted all of his impressive potential to win all five of his matches over the course of three days in front of his home fans.
Draper claimed a win against Rune in a feisty final between two of the best young players in tennis as he claimed three of the four quarters to win 12-14 15-12 13-10 19-7 and the convincing nature of that final quarter highlighted his dominance by the end.
UTS is played out over four quarters and Draper has found a way to win all his matches on his debut, beating Rune on day one and backing that up with wins against Gael Monfils and Alexander Bublik.
He then beat Casper Ruud with a sensational performance in the semi-final on Sunday before completing his victory with a second win in the competition against Rune.
“It’s been an amazing weekend,” said Draper. “To get a chance to play in front of my home fans was fantastic and it’s great to come out with the trophy.
“The UTS rules took some getting used to, but I feel like we had some high-level matches over the weekend and the fans seemed to enjoy it.
“I’m so happy I’ve been able to play the way I can, and hopefully bring that into next year. We both brought the best out of each other there. It’s not easy with this format – it’s very difficult to stay consistent and play each point as it comes.”
“I have to thank Patrick Mouratoglou and the UTS guys for giving me a wildcard here and I have loved being a part of it.”
UNSTOPPABLE THIS WEEKEND 🤯@jackdraper0 aka The Power wins #UTSLondon for his first time in UTS format 👑
He defeats Holger Rune aka The Viking 3 quarters to 1.
He has only lost two quarters in 5 matches this weekend! #UTSGrandFinal #UTSTour pic.twitter.com/PzWMCtS5LE
— UTS Tour (@uts_tour_) December 17, 2023
Draper collected $737,907 in prize money over the course of an injury-affected 2023 season, but he managed to boost that total impressively by earning himself a huge Christmas bonus by winning the UTS Grand Final.
As an undefeated champion over the Grand Final weekend, Draper collected money from the bonus pool and walked away with an impressive $546,800 for winning his five quick-fire matches that were played over four eight-minute quarters.
It was a lucrative weekend of work for the 21-year-old, who is now looking forward to 2024 and what he hopes will be an injury-free season.
“I speak with my coach all the time about what my goals are and all these sorts of things and the main one we always come back to is you can have visions of doing great but if you’re not putting the work in and doing the right things on a day-to-day basis then it’s going to be hard to achieve what you want,” added Draper.
“My main goal is to fulfil my potential. If that’s to be a Grand Slam champion or to be top five or top 10 or top 20 we will see. But I do have big aspirations to be in that position one day. Fulfil my potential and then let’s see.”
Draper will be a dangerous floater in the draw for the Australian Open next month as he will not be seeded and could face one of the game’s top ranked players in the opening round.
While many will dismiss his UTS Grand Final win as an irrelevance as it was an end-of-season exhibition event, the confidence Draper will get from his win at London’s ExCeL will add to his firepower heading into the new year.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbHNp6Csa2Zqe6S7zGirnqaensBuusSwqmiikZi4brDRmqeeql2owaKzxp6poqaXYr2ztdmeZKannprGbsHTrJ6rmZ6Zs6q6wKVkqZmkp7akt4ympq6qkam8qLjOrg%3D%3D