Jack Draper Advances After Matteo Berrettini Retires Following Walk Home

A nationwide power outage in Spain turned out to be beneficial for Jack Draper, who found himself mentally refreshed after spending a day reading at his hotel in Madrid. This break came in handy as he faced Matteo Berrettini, who had to endure a two-hour walk back to his hotel due to disrupted transport services from the outage.

The third-round match at the Madrid Open commenced on Tuesday afternoon and concluded swiftly in just 57 minutes when Berrettini retired due to injury. Draper had secured a narrow first set 7-6 (7-2) when Berrettini decided he could not continue owing to abdominal pain.

Berrettini, who was the runner-up at Wimbledon in 2021, had initially felt discomfort during his second-round match on Saturday. The forced walk back to his hotel on Monday compounded his issues, as a power failure affected transportation, prompting players and coaches to opt for walking instead of waiting for courtesy cars.

Draper, unaffected by the outage at the time, expressed relief that he had yet to leave his hotel when the power went down around 12:45 PM on Monday. Initially frustrated by the delay, he later appreciated his day free of electricity and internet, utilizing the time to read a book.

“Waiting around in these tournaments can be tough,” Draper told Sky Sports. “After being here for eight days and only playing one match on Saturday, I really wanted to compete. While I didn’t enjoy another day off, it was refreshing to disconnect from social media and my phone. For once, I actually read a book.”

Although Draper started slowly on Tuesday, dropping his serve in the first game, he remained composed and leveraged his strong groundstrokes to regain momentum. Berrettini’s serve also lost power, leading the Italian to retire after losing the tie-break, possibly to conserve energy for the upcoming Italian Open.

“I know he had issues in his last match,” Draper noted. “Matteo is always positive and full of energy, but his serve seemed less powerful today. He competes at a high level, and I wish him the best moving forward.”

Draper is set to face Tommy Paul, the world No. 12 from the United States, in the last-16 round on Wednesday. Draper currently leads their head-to-head record with 3 wins to 2. However, he lost their latest match at the quarter-finals of the previous year’s Queen’s Club Championships.

“Tommy is a great competitor who always shows up well against me,” Draper commented. “We have faced each other several times, and losing at Queen’s hurt a lot. I am eager for this next match.”

Currently, Draper is the sole British singles player remaining in Madrid after Jacob Fearnley and Cameron Norrie faced third-round defeats. Fearnley managed to hold serve twice against Grigor Dimitrov but lost ultimately in a tie-break, while Norrie, after winning the first set, succumbed to Canadian Gabriel Diallo.

In other news, Novak Djokovic’s preparations for the French Open are uncertain after he withdrew from next week’s Italian Open. The Serbian 24-time Grand Slam champion has not provided a reason for his withdrawal, ending an 18-year streak of participation in the prestigious tournament. Djokovic has faced challenges this season, with a notable runner-up finish at the Miami Open being one of his few highlights, and he has only one week left to prepare before the Roland Garros with options in Hamburg and Geneva starting May 19.