{"id":51973,"date":"2026-03-07T22:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T22:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=51973"},"modified":"2026-03-07T22:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T22:34:13","slug":"cdr2pge32x4oat_mediumrssat_campaignrss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/03\/07\/cdr2pge32x4oat_mediumrssat_campaignrss\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Draper gets Indian Wells title defence off to winning start"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">British number one Jack Draper fought back from a set down &#8211; and feeling &#8220;a little bit underprepared&#8221; after eight months out with injury &#8211; to get his Indian Wells title defence off to a winning start.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">An early break of serve in the decider gave the 24-year-old a crucial advantage that he pressed home to overcome Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut 3-6 6-3 6-2 and move into the third round.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Having only returned to the ATP Tour last week following the lay-off caused by bone bruising in his left serving arm, Draper &#8211; who had a bye in the first round &#8211; was wayward early on before hitting back at the beginning of the second set.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The world number 14 took that momentum into the third, building a 5-2 lead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A determined Bautista Agut looked set to pull a game back to love against serve, but Draper was not to be denied and rallied impressively to save three break points and take victory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Speaking on court to Sky Sports, he said it was &#8220;good to be back somewhere I have great memories&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But he added: &#8220;At the same time I was a little bit underprepared because of the amount of tennis I have missed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I was coming out today against a really formidable opponent. The first set was a bit edgy, but then I have managed to find a little bit of spark.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Jack #Draper #Indian #Wells #title #defence #winning #start<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>British number one Jack Draper fought back from a set down &#8211; and feeling &#8220;a little bit underprepared&#8221; after eight&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51973"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51975,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51973\/revisions\/51975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}