When 12th seed Holger Rune stood across the net from Drapers Sunday afternoon, they may have been just one ranking position apart, but the chasm felt much larger—in the lower-ranked player’s direction. The match played out that way. After 12 games, Draper had won 90 percent of his first-serve points, hadn’t offered Rune a single break point and, more to the point, utterly owned the center court and most of the rallies played on it.
As he did against his prior opponents—a murderer’s row at a hard-court event—Draper’s forehand was the point-terminating, game-breaking shot. Whether it was with a serve-plus-one or in return games, Draper owned the only stroke that really mattered. Well, beyond his also-lethal serve. Rune did well to stay within a break midway through the second set—particularly when, after 13 games, Draper had won 41.7% of Rune’s first-serve points, and 56.3% of points on his second serve.
“So far, Draper has the answers,” said Tennis Channel’s Jim Courier on the broadcast. “Rune, still searching.”
