Wimbledon 2021: Novak Djokovic defeats Britain’s Jack Draper in first round

Even in defeat, a new star of British tennis was born as the 19-year-old wildcard took the first set and fought valiantly against the defending champion

When the ball clipped the frame of Novak Djokovic’s racquet, looping high towards the roof over Centre Court, the crowd erupted in expectation. On the baseline, Jack Draper, revelling in the eye of a storm, pumped a fist towards the Gods and finally soaked in his surroundings. Playing in the main draw for the first time in his career, nothing could prepare the British teenager for this baptism of fire, pitted unsympathetically against the all-conquering defending champion, Novak Djokovic. But as the ball tumbled back to earth and the lineswoman bellowed “out”, a new star was born at Wimbledon.

Of course, at this level and on this stage, tennis rarely deals in fairy tales. After being caught cold, Djokovic’s imperious class inevitably shone through, draining the adrenaline from Draper’s tearaway momentum. This was never going to be an upset for the ages, nor the day when rusting alloys revealed themselves in the defending champion’s dream of an unprecedented Golden Slam. Djokovic’s relentless march towards greatness goes on unabated, but even as he raced clear in the third and fourth sets, this 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 victory will not be remembered as a formality.

Instead, by taking the first set, it will be known as the day Draper announced himself to the British public. The son of a former LTA chief, he reached the finals of Wimbledon as a junior and excited whispers have long touted him as the natural inheritor to Andy Murray’s throne. That faraway idea will need to be reined in, but the 19-year-old has laid down the best credentials for both his talent and resolve.

Draper was unavoidably wide-eyed when he walked out onto Centre Court at 1.30pm on a rain-smattered opening day at Wimbledon. The crowd’s encouragement rolled down from the stands to the court in avalanches, first for the scientists, doctors and nurses invited to Royal Box, then to a prodigy whose wildcard had been treated without cruelly by the draw. These are the occasions every player dreams into reality, but their true scale still flickers at the end of the imagination. What they can never account for are the nerves that invade the fantasies, the heaviness that sinks into the muscles and stiffens before every shot. If Draper was never expected to win, what this first set evidenced most remarkably was his mettle, a strength of mind that is innate and can never truly be taught.

In the opening service game, the middle of the racquet became an elusive stranger in Draper’s hands. And so, having yet to win a point, the 19-year-old composed himself at the back of the court and prepared for the first serve on Centre Court of his senior career. His response was emphatic, a blur of blistering speed that shook out all the tension. And when Djokovic earned his first of several breakpoints, Draper remained nerveless, even as the threat of a thrashing beckoned, hurling himself into every groundstroke at full throttle.

Novak Djokovic celebrates defeating Jack Draper (AFP)

Perhaps, it was the fearlessness of youth and the freedom of having nothing to lose, but what followed amounted to a surge of confidence that seemed to, however briefly, startle even Djokovic. The champion’s unusual hesitancy, coupled with a thunderous smash, in the third game gifted Draper two breakpoints. He needed just one and took it with aplomb.

A war of attrition followed, with Djokovic racing through his service games, playing the role of the villain with glee. The tide of pressure appeared to be insurmountable, lapping at every crack in Draper’s resolve, but the dam never broke. Draper saved another two break points in the sixth, his fierce serve proving a brilliant weapon of escape. In the eighth, with the score at 0-40, Draper took a deep breath, paused with a faint hint of showmanship and invited the crowd’s encouragement. Once the roars subsided, he delivered a colossal serve and then followed it with a series of bludgeoning groundstrokes. There could be no mistaking the teenager’s readiness to rise to the occasion. And with a 5-4 lead and adrenaline coursing through his body, there were to be no further doubts. A wickedly spinning forehand forced another error from Djokovic, whose backhand ballooned into the air. Before it hit the floor, Centre Court had burst into noise.

That Draper wasn’t unable to sustain was no surprise or shortcoming. He never lacked belief, berated himself after every mistake and yelled in fury after another wayward first serve. The fact remained that, over the course of the four sets, he made just three more unforced errors than Djokovic. It was the champion’s precision that proved the difference, attacking Draper’s serve and unleashing a cascade of winners for which the Briton had no answer. It was never a romp, though. After breaking Draper in the third set, by which point the momentum had already been irrevocably turned, Djokovic looked towards his box, unleashed a guttural howl and clenched both fists. He had been forced to dig deep, too, even if that well still possesses so many more layers.

With the finish line fast approaching, Djokovic offered a few flashing moments of brilliance, the pick a stunning low volley where his knees practically grazed the floor. From a glimpse of vulnerability, the world No 1 was more familiarly impregnable. That would not force Draper to leave with a whimper, though. In his final service game, he halted Djokovic and let out one last roar. For a new star of British tennis, it may echo for many years to come.