Draper and Weightman lead another successful week for Britain's tennis stars
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Jack Draper’s brilliant start to the 2022 season continued last week with the 20-year-old winning his fourth ATP Challenger event of the year in Saint Brieuc.
The win adds to the Brit's three titles in Forli earlier this year and takes his record to an impressive 22 victories on the ATP Challenger Tour in 2022. Draper becomes the first player in history to win four Challenger titles through March in a single year.
He has now won more Challenger titles than any other player born in the year 2001 - overtaking Jannik Sinner, Brandon Nakashima and Juan Manuel Cerundolo.
Great Britain is now the leading nation on the ATP Challenger Tour with five titles (four for Draper and one for Paul Jubb).
The latest rankings see Draper jump 22 places to break into the top 125 for the first time in his career at world No.124.
Before reaching the final, Draper had to battle past two former top 50 singles players in Illya Marchenko and Robin Haase - both of which he beat in straight sets. A win over Evan Furness set up a semi-final with Antoine Escoffier, where he survived the Frenchman’s threats of a comeback, winning 6-2, 0-6, 6-0.
Britain’s rising star defeated Belgium’s Zizou Bergs in the final 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 in just over two and a half hours.
Maiden title for Weightman in Tunisia
Oscar Weightman battled all the way from qualifying to lift his first ITF title last week at the M15 Monastir.
In a standout week for Weightman, the 20-year-old only dropped one set in the main draw on his way to winning the title - finishing with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Jumpei Yamasaki, ranking over 500 places above him.
This was the first time he had made it past the quarter-finals in a ITF singles event and should see him take a significant leap in the rankings next week.
Weightman also reached the semi-finals in the doubles playing alongside Michel Dembek, where they lost out 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 10-4 to Polish duo, Szymon Kielan and Michal Mikula.
More doubles success in Miami
Neal Skupski and Wesley Koolhof finished runners-up in their first ATP Masters final together in Miami, as their dream start to the 2022 season continues.
Having won three titles together and with this latest feat at the Miami Open, the British, Dutch duo remain second in the race to the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin.
Skupski and Koolhof lost 7-6(5), 6-4 to Hubert Hurkacz and John Isner in the final.
The Polish, American team also defeated Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram in the quarter-finals on a week where Salisbury rose to world No.1 for the first time.
In more rankings news, Cam Norrie's fourth round run in Miami also saw him break into the top 10 - becoming ony the fourth Brit to do so since 1973.
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