Jack Draper continued his Wimbledon preparations with a battling victory over American Marcos Giron to book his place in the quarter-finals of the Stuttgart Open.
Draper, who is threatening Cameron Norrie’s mantle of British men’s No 1, missed the entire grass-court season last year because of injury.
After a straight-sets win over Sebastian Ofner on Monday, Draper found things tougher this time around against Giron, who had comfortably seen off another Brit, Andy Murray, in his first-round match.
The opening set went on serve until Draper broke in the fifth game, the 22-year-old going on to take it 6-4 in just 31 minutes.
Giron regrouped in the second set. After a key hold in the fifth game, saving five break points, the American broke Draper to move 5-3 up on his way to levelling the match.
However, Draper raced into a 3-0 lead in the deciding set and although Giron continued to battle on, Draper would ultimately clinch a 6-4 3-6 6-3 victory.
“I thought I played a really good first set and then he came back really strong,” Draper said after his win.
“I had a little blip in concentration, but then came out in the third set really strong and was really happy with the way I was able to come through the match.
“He beat Andy Murray yesterday, who is obviously an incredible player and I knew he had such a high level.
“I had to come out and know he was going to bring that, but I was able to stay with him and come through. I am really happy with the way I mentally performed today.”
Defending champion Frances Tiafoe awaits Draper in the quarter-finals
Draper goes on to play another American, Frances Tiafoe, in the last eight after the defending champion beat German Yannick Hanfmann 7-5 7-6 (7-5).
Italian fifth seed Lorenzo Musetti recovered to beat Dominik Koepfer 6-7 (9-11) 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 to also reach the quarter-finals, where he will face Alexander Bublik after he came through 6-1 7-6 (7-4) against Hamad Medjedovic.
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