Popyrin scares Draper but Aussie Queen's hopes are over
Australia's preparations for Wimbledon have taken another dispiriting hit at the Queen's Club Championships as Alexei Popyrin's agonising exit at the hands of home favourite Jack Draper ended their men's challenge at the prestigious London event.
With Alex de Minaur surprisingly knocked out and Jordan Thompson an injury casualty, it was all down to Popyrin to save the day and he could at least have been encouraged by the quality and the fight he displayed in his 3-6 6-2 7-6 (7-5) loss to Britain's great new SW19 hope Draper on Wednesday.
But when the match came down to a decisive tiebreak, it was world No.6 Draper who held his nerve best, coming up with the crucial big plays to disarm the Sydneysider and march into the quarter-finals.
Popyrin, who had saved two match points at 4-5 down in the final set, recovered to take a 4-2 lead in the breaker, with the best win of his 2025 campaign in his sights.
But did he then blink? For a wildly loose forehand gave Draper the vital mini-break to drag himself back into the contest, and at 5-5 he produced an inspirational searing backhand winner to earn a third match point, before sealing his hard-fought victory with a 14th ace.
That big-match acumen demonstrated just why Wimbledon is very probably about to get as excited about Draper as it always used to be by Andy Murray, and it felt somehow fitting that the 23-year-old left-hander should be prevailing on the Queen's centre court now named after the great Scot.
"It was a tough match. Credit to Alexei, he played some amazing tennis," said Draper, saluting the last Aussie in the singles draw.
"It was a bit up and down but you guys helped get me through that," he added, thanking the crowd that included his grandad and other members of his family.
Popyrin, who's at a career-high No.21 in the rankings after reaching the fourth round at the French Open, is clearly going to be a threat to the grass-court elite with his 218kph serve on the quickening surfaces amid a bit of a London heatwave.
And he shouldn't be discouraged by such a narrow loss, during which he went shot-for-shot with Draper, firing 31 winners to the Englishman's 33.
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