Jack Draper becomes first Briton ever to qualify for Next Gen Finals in Milan as breakout year continues

Published 19/10/2022 at 16:52 GMT

Jack Draper's beaten opponents list in 2022 reads like a 'who's who' of elite tennis, with the Brit seeing off the likes of Stefanos Tsitsipas, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Dominic Thiem and Taylor Fritz. Those wins - and the consistency he has found this year - has resulted in his qualification for the Next Gen Finals in Milan. Lorenzo Musetti and Holger Rune have also already secured their places.

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Jack Draper has become the first Briton in history to qualify for the ATP Next Gen Finals in Milan.

Draper, 20, has had a breakout 2022, landing victories over such heralded names as Stefanos Tsitsipas, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Taylor Fritz as he marched up the ATP rankings from No. 265 at the start of the year, to his current position at No. 48.

Draper's ascent began early in 2022 on the Challenger circuit, recording four tournament wins before the end of March.

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He also picked up wins at two Masters 1000 events in Miami and Madrid respectively to announce his name to a wider audience.

During the grass-court season he reached the semi-finals at Eastbourne, and then took his momentum across the pond for the North American hard-court summer by making the last eight at the Canada Masters, another ATP 1000 event.

Draper is currently in action at the European Open in Antwerp where he dispatched Jenson Brooksby in his first match, 6-1 6-2, and faces No. 1 seed Hubert Hurkacz on Wednesday.

And now the 6ft4 lefty will get his chance to crown his fine campaign with the Next Gen Finals trophy, which was won by current world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz last year.

The Next Gen Finals will take place at Milan's Allianz Cloud from November 8-12, with the event seeing the world's top eight players under-21 coming together, in a similar way to the senior ATP season-ending finals.

Alongside Draper in qualifying for the event are Lorenzo Musetti and Holger Rune, with five places still up for grabs.

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