Jack Draper claimed his fiery temperament is similar to Andy Murray’s after battling past fellow Briton Ryan Peniston to reach the semi-finals of Eastbourne.
The 20-year-old became the last British player standing at the Rothesay International courtesy of a gutsy 6-3 6-3 success over his countryman.
His powerful performance at Devonshire Park was underpinned by aggression and fight.
![Jack Draper](http://image.assets.pressassociation.io/v2/image/production/cb78bdbe571d4da5afa71bf952be2332Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjU2MDk0MDky/2.67559218.jpg?w=640)
Yet he repeatedly expressed agitation and chastised himself following mistakes, drawing comparisons with the demonstrative on-court behaviour of three-time grand slam-winner Murray.
“It’s tough; I’ve never been someone who’s incredibly calm and composed and like ice on a tennis court,” said Draper, who will face France-born American Maxime Cressy in the last four.
“That’s the unique thing about tennis: everyone has a different mentality. Mine’s a bit more fiery and therefore it’s tough to be calm the whole time.
“If I was calm the whole time, I probably wouldn’t get the best out of myself because that’s just not who I am.
“Andy’s got a similar personality, I guess.
“He’s someone who loves competing, wants to win the whole time, and sometimes that brings out a little bit of anger here and there.
“If he was someone who never got pumped up or emotional then maybe he wouldn’t have had the success and career he has had, it’s definitely a balancing act.”
In a first tour-level meeting between the left-handed wildcards, tournament debutant Draper dropped the opening two games but claimed six of the next seven to clinch the opening set.
"There's a lot of great players and great people involved. We've just got to keep on improving." @jackdraper0 on the buzz around the Brits at the #RothesayInternational pic.twitter.com/DBWiKT8ApZ
— LTA (@the_LTA) June 23, 2022
The second set followed a similar pattern, with the world number 108 overturning a 3-1 deficit by winning five games on the bounce to progress to the first ATP Tour semi-final of his fledgling career.
Draper is due at Wimbledon next week and, while he is fully focused on the current competition, insists he fears no one.
“I’ve obviously gained a lot of confidence this week which I can take into future tournaments,” said Draper, who took the opening set off Novak Djokovic in his first-round defeat at SW19 last year.
“Everyone in the Wimbledon draw is obviously an amazing player and whoever I play will be very tough.
![Ryan Peniston](http://image.assets.pressassociation.io/v2/image/production/7c56df604596000131a5071e562fd3d0Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjU2MDk0Mzc1/2.67559240.jpg?w=640)
“There’s no doubt I can go far but, at the same time, there are a lot of things that need to fall into place for that to happen.
“I definitely believe in my ability and my game to beat the best players in the world, especially on grass because it’s a bit of a leveller, I’d say.
“I will go into Wimbledon and whoever I play, I will be confident.”
The all-British clash guaranteed some much-needed cheer for the home crowd after Cameron Norrie and Harriet Dart each suffered quarter-final exits earlier on Thursday.
Too good!
Maxime Cressy takes out the top seed in Eastbourne 7-5 7-5 to 🔒 a spot in the semi-finals 🙌@the_LTA | #RothesayInternational
— ATP Tour (@atptour) June 23, 2022
British men’s number one Norrie was denied a maiden Eastbourne semi-final by a 7-5 7-5 defeat to world number 60 Cressy, while Dart was outclassed by two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, losing 6-3 6-4.
Having also knocked out Dan Evans, Cressy will be seeking a third successive British scalp on Friday, with Draper braced for a tough assignment.
“It’s going to be really testing because he’s obviously playing great this week but I look forward to the challenge,” he said.
Following a strong grass-court season so far, Peniston is now looking forward to realising the dream of playing at Wimbledon.
![cinch Championships – Day Five – The Queen’s Club](http://image.assets.pressassociation.io/v2/image/production/ca9f7d8dc9bd717b604eca6144fedea4Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjU2MDk0NTU4/2.67473267.jpg?w=640)
The 26-year-old has his fingers crossed for a meeting with 22-time grand slam winner Rafael Nadal at the London championships.”He’s been one of my idols since I was a young kid so to play him on Centre Court would be outrageous,” he said of the Spaniard.
“I’m so, so excited, so pumped to play there. I think it’s a lot of kids’ dreams to play there. It is mine for sure.”
Norrie will be seeded ninth at Wimbledon.
While the 26-year-old was disappointed with a result which denied him a meeting with Draper, he insisted preparation for the forthcoming home slam had been more than satisfactory.
“It was perfect, exactly what I needed, and going back to London right now, and I just get ready for Wimby obviously,” said Norrie.
American third seed Taylor Fritz will meet Australian Alex De Minaur in the other men’s semi-final following their respective wins over Alexander Bublik (6-3 6-2) and Tommy Paul (6-2 4-6 6-4).
In the women’s competition, an elbow injury for Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko led to Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia going through to face Kvitova.
Reigning champion Jeļena Ostapenko will play Camila Giorgi in the other half of the draw. The Latvian overcame Anhelina Kalinina 6-3 6-2, while Italian Giorgi defeated Viktoriya Tomova 6-2 6-1.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel