Great Britain’s Jack Draper progressed to the quarter-finals of the Stuttgart Open with a valiant three-set success over Marcos Giron in Wednesday’s second-round showdown.
The sixth seed was denied an all-British affair with Andy Murray in the second round by Giron, who dispatched the veteran in straight sets in round one while Draper got the job done against Sebastian Ofner.
The American forced Draper to go the distance in a gripping contest, but the 22-year-old – still chasing his first title on the ATP Tour – held his nerve to prevail 6-4 4-6 6-3 in one hour and 53 minutes.
Saving four of the five break points that Giron managed to conjure up, Draper recovered expertly from losing the second set, storming into a 3-0 lead in the decider and closing out the battle with his 37th winner of the afternoon.
The British number two also won an impressive 84% of points behind his first serve and is rewarded with a daunting quarter-final against defending champion Frances Tiafoe, a 7-5 7-6[5] victor over Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann.
