There will be days to come, perhaps this fortnight, when Jack Draper’s strength of mind and body will be stretched to its limit, when Henman Hill will be a sea of nervous energy and viewers at home will be gripped by agonies of suspense.
But this was not such a day. This was an hour of brutal brilliance and 20 minutes of physical decay from his opponent Sebastian Baez, before the towel was thrown in.
‘It’s no way to win a tennis match,’ said Draper, who led 6-2, 6-2, 2-1 when Baez retired. ‘I wanted to play a bit longer to be honest.’ Be careful what you wish for Jackie boy, for as unsatisfying as this might have felt, this is not a week to be turning up one’s nose at an easy pass to the second round.
With the record-breaking heat making conditions zippy and unpredictable, SW19 has become a boneyard of the seeds: 13 have fallen in the men’s draw across the first two days, the most in Wimbledon history, including four of the top 10.
Then you factor in the pressure on the young man here in his first match of a fortnight in which he is fancied to contend for the title. As he said himself when asked about the pressure of home expectation: ‘I don’t think about it until people mention it every five minutes.’
Given all that, a light workout and a gentle passage through was just what the doctor ordered. Draper will rest up with a full tank of gas – and he will need every litre for greater tests which are to come.
Jack Draper cruised into the second round at Wimbledon after a comfortable victory
He led Sebastian Baez 6-2, 6-2, 2-1 when his opponent retired through injury in the third set
Baez was second best throughout and had spoken to a physio before retiring hurt
Next up is an intriguing clash with Marin Cilic, the 2014 US Open champion and a finalist here in 2017. The rangy Croat is 36 and plies his trade mostly on the Challenger Tour these days, so Draper should be OK. As the seeds fell yesterday, the most relevant to our British boy’s hopes was the loss of Alexander Bublik – the maverick Kazak who beat Draper at the French Open and was a prospective third-round opponent.
As we look ahead and plot his path to the latter stages, Draper goes one match at a time and there was enough in this abbreviated contest to show Wimbledon what they can expect from him over the next week or so.
Draper has made extraordinary strides over the last 12 months. He reached the semi-finals of the US Open. He won titles in Vienna and Indian Wells, where he beat Carlos Alcaraz. He reconfigured his game for clay and made the final in Madrid.
He has become a genuine superstar but such is the British myopia about anything outside this golden fortnight that the nation will only truly appreciate Draper’s talents when he brings his game to bear at Wimbledon.
His history in SW19 can be briefly told. He lost a couple of years in a row in the first round of qualifying, then made a main-draw debut full of promise aged 19, snatching the first set from Novak Djokovic before going down in four. Since then he has reached the second round twice.
And so in many ways this felt like his debut; his moment to tell the Wimbledon faithful: forget the boy I was, look at the man I have become.
His serve looks so good on a grass court, with his ability to toggle between flat power or the sliced, sliding leftie angle with which John McEnroe cut so much mustard on these lawns.
Draper lost only five points with the balls in hand, sending down 10 aces. He bullied his opponent in a match that made a fair argument for weight categories in tennis.
Draper sent his opponent his best, saying the victory was ‘no way to win’ post-match
He will, though, now set his sights on the second round as he looks to make history at SW19
Baez was giving his opponent 33 pounds and seven inches in height. The 5ft 7in world No38 is a fine clay court player, reaching the final of the Rio Open this year, but this is grass – no surface for short men.
The 24-year-old from Buenos Aires took a nasty slip on the grass in the opening game of the second set and received some treatment to his knee in the next changeover. When he was broken early in the third set he called it a day.
And so came just a third Wimbledon victory for Draper, and when you say that out loud it does feel far-fetched to talk of a title challenge. But Draper really has come an awfully long way since a frantic, nervy exit against countryman Cam Norrie here last year.
‘The loss to Cam really hurt me,’ reflected Draper. ‘It did get to me, the pressure I was putting on myself. I look back a year on and I feel a lot calmer in myself, more confident in my ability to problem solve, to know how to play best of five sets.
‘Last year was my first proper year on the tour so I was still figuring out a lot of things. When I came up against experienced guys, they’d unlock my weaknesses a little bit. Especially someone like Cam, who I practiced with a lot.
‘It was just another chance to look at myself and mature again and realize I need to improve so much if I’m going to be at the point where I’m going to be a top player.’
He is a top player now and he has indeed improved so much. How far that will carry him this fortnight remains to be seen.
