By Jack Draper secured the first doubles win of his career after teaming up with world No. 1 Jannik Sinner at the Canadian Open in Montreal. The British No. 1 and Italian Sinner, the Australian Open champion, formed an all-star pair at the National Bank Open, starting their US Open preparations.
The 22-year-olds, playing together for the first time, dominated the first set against Belgian pair Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen, winning 6-0. Gille and Vliegen, the 16th seeds, managed to level the match by winning a one-sided tie-break in the second set.
Despite trailing 7-4 in the match tie-break, Draper and Sinner rallied to win 6-0, 6-7, 10-8.
Draper’s previous doubles experience included three ATP matches, all losses, and a recent singles defeat at the Olympics by Taylor Fritz. Sinner, who has a doubles ranking and missed Paris 2024 due to tonsillitis, was playing his first match since Wimbledon.
Other singles players, including Russian world No. 5 Daniil Medvedev, are also competing in the doubles draw to gain extra court time before the US Open. Draper and Sinner will face American Ben Shelton and Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik in the next round.
Shelton and Bublik advanced after Britain’s Henry Patten and his partner Harri Heliovaara, the Wimbledon champions, retired from their match due to a collision.
Draper will return to singles play on Wednesday against Australian Jordan Thompson.
