Jack Draper defeats Jiri Lehecka to reach Qatar Open final
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British No.1 Jack Draper is through to his first final of the season after knocking out world No.25 Jiri Lehecka in the semi-finals of the Qatar Open.
In the third meeting between two of the ATP’s rising stars, Draper saw out his second victory over the Czech with a sensational 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-3 comeback win.
In the final, Draper is set to take on world No.10 Andrey Rublev as he aims to win the second ATP 500 tournament of his career. They will face off on Saturday 22 February.
"I felt more and more positive about my tennis and physically better as the match went on, and I'm proud of the way I competed out there," Draper said.
"At the end of last year, I started to pick up some real momentum and then all of a sudden I couldn't play for a month. In Australia my level was all over the place, but mentally it was really good for me.
"I'm definitely a different player since I last played him (Rublev). But he's a top-10 player who I respect massively."
The British No.1 couldn’t find a way to take his chances in the first set and lost his early break lead at 3-1 in the second, but Draper showed great resilience to fight back.
Locked in a second set tie-break with his tournament on the line, Draper rattled off five consecutive points from 2-2 to force the decider.
In a close third set, it was a double fault from Lehecka on break point at 3-3 that ultimately gave Draper the platform to push on. The 23-year-old Briton held once again before claiming a third break of the match to wrap up the win.
Draper has been in impressive form in his first tournament since his fourth round run at the Australian Open. Adding to his victory over Lehecka, the world No.16 has also come through clashes with Alexei Popyrin, Christopher O’Connell and Matteo Berrettini, who knocked out Novak Djokovic in the first round.
27-year-old Rublev is a former world No.5 with 16 ATP titles to his name. The Russian knocked out Alexander Bublik, Nuno Borges, Alex de Minaur and Felix Auger-Aliassime en-route to the final.
Rublev has defeated Draper in their previous three meetings, with their last match coming at the US Open in 2023.
There will be more British interest in the Qatar Open doubles final, with an all-British battle set to take place between Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski up against Lloyd Glasspool and Julian Cash.
Salisbury and Skupski knocked out Australian Open champions Henry Patten and Harri Heliovaara in the semi-finals 3-6, 6-3, 10-5, while Cash and Glasspool defeated Yuri Bhambri and Ivan Dodig 7-6(3), 6-3.
In the first match between the two British pairs, Salisbury and Skupski will be going for their first title together since 2021 (San Diego), while new partnership Glasspool and Cash are gunning for their second of the season.
How to watch Jack Draper vs Andrey Rublev in the Qatar Open final
You can watch live coverage of Jack Draper vs Andrey Rublev and the all-British doubles final at the Qatar Open exclusively on Sky Sports and Now TV.
