JACK DRAPER landed the greatest win and biggest payday of his career thanks to a brilliant Desert Storm display.
The Sutton lefthander became the fifth British bloke – after Andy Murray, Cameron Norrie, Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski – to claim a Masters 1000 title, which sits below the four Slams in terms of prestige.
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A dominant 6-2 6-2 victory over the below-par Holger Rune saw him lift the Indian Wells Open tonight, securing a mega £930,000 payday for two weeks’ work at Palm Springs.
A total of ten aces rained down on stressed-out Rune, 21, and it emulated Norrie’s success on the same court four years ago.
Draper, who won in just 68 minutes less than 24 hours after beating Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-final, sunk to his knees and pointed both fingers to the sky in celebration.
He said: “It’s incredible. I wasn’t expecting this. I put in a lot of work over time.
“I’m just so grateful and so happy to be out here, to be able to play, my body feels healthy, to feel great in the mind.
“All the work I have done over the last few years, it feels like it’s coming together on the big stage. I cannot put that into words.
“It was important (to break early). I approached the game well. Yesterday I had a few ups and downs in the match. A bit of low energy against Carlos. I learned from that.
“I knew that Holger would come out and play some good tennis. I needed to be aggressive and play to win from the first ball. I did an amazing job of that.
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“I didn’t allow him to play. I felt like I dictated the match really well.
“I feel like I deserve this in all honesty. The amount of adversity I have been through, the amount of sacrifices, the amount of time all the people around me have put into me.
“Yeah, it’s an emotional feeling to know how much you have gone through and put in.
“To be here now and to say I will be seven in the world, I cannot tell you how much that means to me.”
Draper, 23, won the toss and elected to receive serve but he could not have envisaged a more confident start amid breezy conditions in the Californian desert.
Within the space of 14 minutes, he had had two breaks of serve and was 4-0 up on the Dane, who had not settled and was clearly rattled.
The pair wore near-identical tennis kits and had their baseball caps on backwards despite the bright sunshine.
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But there was a clear gulf in class and calm-looking Draper barely celebrated a faultless first set which he swiftly secured in 29 minutes.
A break of serve at the start of the second set quietened the crowd and it was evident this was not much of a contest as he strolled to victory.
There was even one forehand winner that was so good that Rune applauded his opponent.
This past fortnight, in which he has produced the most consistent tennis of his professional life, sees him reach a career high of No7 in the world when the rankings update in the morning – and just 60 points behind Novak Djokovic in fifth.
Draper heads to Miami next but in truth, this result will have enormous reverberations throughout the year, not just this month.
It means he will be seen within the locker room as a genuine Slam contender, especially when it comes to Wimbledon in less than four months’ time.
Earlier, Russian Mirra Andreeva, who is only 17 years old, cried as she came from a set down to shock world No1 Aryna Sabalenka 2-6 6-4 6-3 in the women’s singles final.
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