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Jack Draper’s Australian Open heroics came to an end after the British No.1 was forced to withdraw from his fourth-round clash against Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz at Rod Laver Arena.
The British No.1 came into the tournament with little preparation following a hip injury he suffered in pre-season, which he admitted he still had to work through.
He then subjected his body to three five-set matches, spending more than 12 and a half hours on court, which proved to be too much.
After taking a medical time-out at the end of a competitive first set, Draper became increasingly threatened in the second and, after Alcaraz led 7-5 6-1, the 15th seed decided to shake hands.
Draper expressed pride in his improved physical resilience and must hope he hasn’t done any further damage that could affect the rest of the season.
The Spaniard, who could now face Novak Djokovic, said: “It’s not the way I wanted to go. Obviously I’m just happy to play another quarter-final but a bit sad for Jack.
“He’s a really nice person, he doesn’t deserve to get injured. He couldn’t prepare well at the start of the season. I’m pretty sure he’ll come back stronger than ever and I just want to wish him a speedy recovery.”
As Djokovic regained his preferred time slot for the night session, Draper’s schedule did not help as he was forced to play in full heat on the hottest day of the tournament.
Draper revealed after taking on Aleksandar Vukic in a deciding tie-break at 1am on Saturday morning that he had been working with a breathing coach to try to improve his stamina.
He expected to be sore and Draper certainly didn’t look his best, but he saved four break points in his first two service games.
Alcaraz then took two chances for the British No. 1 before finally breaking to take a 4-2 lead, but the Spaniard was not at his best.
His fourth and fifth double faults of the set at 5-3, combined with two errors, gave Draper a break back, but a forehand down the line closed out a set in which Alcaraz committed 21 unforced errors.
Draper then called the trainer and left the field, and Alcaraz used the time to speak with trainer Juan Carlos Ferrer.
And the 21-year-old upped the ante at the start of the second set as it became increasingly clear that Draper was struggling.
He couldn’t even try to catch balls, and after sitting down briefly at the end of the set, he wisely decided not to continue.
The win means Alcaraz equaled the Open era record by reaching his 10th Grand Slam quarter-final before turning 22, joining Boris Becker, Mats Wilander and Bjorn Borg.
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