There were two moments in particular where Draper’s relative inexperience showed.
The first came with him serving for the first set at 5-4. After mostly dominating the opening nine games, he suddenly tightened up. He missed first serves. He double faulted. He sent a routine backhand long and a nervous forehand wide. Ruud broke, held, and broke again when Draper, still tight, shanked a forehand at set point. Ruud had stolen the first set.
In the second, Draper relaxed and took control again. But just when he looked ready to do the same early in the third, he faltered once more. With Ruud serving at 1-2, Draper ripped off a couple of winners and earned two break points. But when Ruud came back to hold, Draper’s disappointment showed in his next service game. Up 30-0, he overhit two forehands, missed a backhand, and was broken.
Draper, looking weary, never really challenged again. In the final game, Ruud game him a lesson in how to close. He held at love, and did it by hitting Draper’s own favorite shot—the down the line forehand—for three winners, the last one on championship point, to clinch a 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 win in two hours and 29 minutes.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Ruud, 26, said of his first Masters 1000 title. “It’s one really big goal I’ve dreamed about.”
“It was an incredible match. I knew if I didn’t bring my A plus game, it was going to be tough. He’s firing from both sides; it’s hard to find a hole in his game.”
