Jack Draper has progressed to the second spherical of the Qatar Open with a robust efficiency in a 6-2 7-6 (7-4) victory in opposition to Alexei Popyrin.
The eighth seed – enjoying for the primary time since retiring injured in opposition to Carlos Alcaraz on the Australian Open in January – wanted solely 27 minutes to take the primary set in Dubai with Popyrin unable to deal with the Briton’s first serves.
The second set was far much less easy for Draper as Popyrin saved a break level to maintain with serve.
Draper, making his debut in Doha, received the tie-break to arrange a last-16 assembly with Australian qualifier Christopher O’Connell.
Earlier on Monday high seed Carlos Alcaraz progressed to the second spherical with a 6-4 6-4 victory in opposition to Marin Cilic.
Former US Open champion Cilic – making his first look since November due to a knee-injury setback – spurned three break factors late within the second set that may have put him 5-3 up.
Alcaraz then broke serve and secured a spot within the final 16, the place he’ll face both Zhang Zhizhen or Luca Nardi.
