Jack Draper screwed over by Holger Rune’s Next Gen withdrawal

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Holger Rune’s withdrawal from this week’s Next Gen Finals has left the likes of Jack Draper screwed over as it skewed the two round-robin groups. The new world No 10 pulled out of the 21-and-under event after winning the Paris Masters but did so after the groups had been made. But in good news for Draper, he continued his climb up the rankings by reaching a new career-high.

Draper will make his debut at the Next Gen Finals on Tuesday as he takes on Dominic Stricker. The 20-year-old had been drawn in a group with the Swiss star, Tseng Chun-hsin and Lorenzo Musetti – initially the second seed at the tournament behind Rune.

The two highest-ranked players of the tournament must be separated in the two groups before the rest of the players are drawn, but with Rune’s withdrawal Draper has now become the second-highest ranked Next Gen Finals player behind Musetti though the two most successful competitors are now stuck in the same group together instead of being split up.

It means the groups have been left uneven, with the top seven players aged 21-and-under qualifying for the event while one Italian receives a wildcard into the draw. This year’s wildcard Francesco Passaro was in Rune’s group but the world No 10 has now been replaced by another Italian wildcard in Matteo Arnaldi instead of the eight-highest ranked Next Gen player.

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The round-robin stage now looks set to be easier on paper for the players in the Green Group, with world No 49 Brandon Nakashima and world No 74 Jiri Lehecka finding themselves in a group with the wildcards who are ranked at world No 119 and No 134. Meanwhile, the rankings of the players in Draper’s group are No 23, 41, 90 and 111.

Only two players can make it out of each group to face off in the semi-finals before Saturday’s championship match. And it will be a tough battle in the Red Group with two top 50 players serving as the competition.

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But it’s not all bad news for the Sutton native, who continued his climb up the rankings as he reached a new career-high of No 41 in the world after making it to the second round in his Paris Masters debut last week. Draper started the year down at world No 265 and has now risen 223 places in the space of 11 months.

The British No 3 will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of Carlos Alcaraz this week, as the world No 1 is the reigning champion of the Next Gen Finals. The Spaniard beat Sebastian Korda to win the trophy last year and has since gone on to win five titles this season including the US Open crown, which made him become the youngest No 1 in ATP history as a result.

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