Madrid Open: Jack Draper heads British trio into last 32

Jack Draper hailed the strength of British tennis after Jacob Fearnley and Cameron Norrie joined him in the last 32 of the Madrid Open.

Fifth seed Draper defeated world number 34 Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands 6-3 6-4 after Fearnley and Norrie had beaten seeded opponents.

Fearnley, ranked 68 in the world, beat a top-20 player for the first time, recovering from losing the first set against Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic, the 19th seed, to come through 1-6 6-3 6-2.

His next opponent will be former Grand Slam semi-finalist and world number three Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, the 15th seed.

Norrie, now the world number 91, continued his good form in Madrid with a 2-6 6-4 6-0 success over another Czech player Jiri Lehecka, the 26th seed, to set up a meeting with Canadian lucky loser Gabriel Diallo.

“Cam obviously had an injury last year so to see him coming back is great,” Draper told Sky Sports.

“And Jacob, someone my age, incredible player. The British public don’t really know much about him yet but he’s going to be, I think, one of the best players in the world.

“Cam’s been up there too and he can do that as well, so I think it’s really exciting for British tennis and good healthy competition for us through.”

Draper bounced back from his disappointing defeat by Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in Monte Carlo to set up a meeting with former Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini of Italy in round three.

The 23-year-old broke to lead 4-2 on his way to taking the first set in just over half an hour, and an early break put him in control of the second on his way to victory in an hour and 15 minutes.

“I’m still relatively new to the clay so I knew it was going to be a tough challenge,” he added.

“Everything was ticking over really nicely so I hope I can carry on gaining more and more confidence and getting more and more effective on this surface.”

Fearnley said he felt he had been playing some of his “worst tennis” in the first set – then twisted his ankle.

“It actually helped, believe it or not. The doctor gave me some painkillers and I was serving that last set some of the best I’ve served in a long time,” he said.

“As of now I think my body is in a good position.”

It was his fourth match of the tournament after coming through qualifying and he added: “The more I play these big matches, these big tournaments and get used to these surroundings, the better I handle them and the better I play.”