The second Indian tournament ups to a G2 with similar field, though Freddie Grant has left. Gemma Heath gets the chance to avenge her defeat last week. Any further wins for Jack Draper will strengthen his chance of ending the week in the top 100
A lot closer than last week (6-3 6-2). Disappointment though for Esther, who lost in both singles and doubles. Jack + exited the doubles leaving just Jack in singles
Boys R2
(3) Jack Draper d. Vasisht Cheruku (IND) 3-6 6-4 6-4
QF
(3) Jack Draper v (5) Palaphoom Kovapitukted (THA)
In the semis, he will face the number one seed, Uisung Park (KOR), a sixteen-year-old who is ranked 107th. Park has had a very good tournament so far. This is not the strongest tournament, but reaching the semis of a grade 2 remains a good sign.
From current JWR 97 ( he will have overtaken the #1 seed as a result of last week ) Jack should so far now be into the 70s.
I make it that he is up to 308.75 points. In the current rankings the #1 2001 born is JWR 74 Chun Hsin Tseng (TPE) 310.00 points.
Maybe a relatively easier Grade 2, but in general I'd say the 15/16 yo range at least has most players actively involved ( there will be exceptions who play ITFs at most sparingly ) compared to the oldest and youngest years. And Jack is December born.
I think if he is having to strategically pick tournaments at 17 to progress at Grade 2 it would be an issue at 14 yrs and 13 months it's just impressive and will give him confidence later when the opposition is stiffer. Its great to see cohorts of both boys and girls doing so well, although the girls are a little younger the two groups should come through together making for a very interesting time following their transition for us all.
A good measuring stick - and result still shows what appears to be an encouraging pattern: looking just from the scores, he tends to start off weaker against a new opponent (hence often loss of a first set) and then seems to figure out ways to tackle their game as he goes along. Don't know if this is an accurate interpretation, but ...
