Jack Draper has soared into the round of 32 at Indian Wells, having overcome rising star Joao Fonseca in the round of 64.
Alexander Zverev thinks Fonseca can become a top 10 player in the future, with the 18-year-old already an ATP champion.
Fonseca should worry the top ATP players, but Draper showed very few signs of struggle against the Brazilian at Indian Wells.
The British number one won 6-4, 6-0 against Fonseca, who had previously beaten Draper’s fellow Briton Jacob Fearnley.
Draper, the 13th seed at Indian Wells, now takes on American Jenson Brooksby in the round of 32 in California.
Jack Draper excited for more Joao Fonseca matches after Indian Wells win
He has, however, taken time to celebrate his latest win, and indeed congratulate his opponent on a great battle.
“Great start in the desert,” Draper wrote on Instagram. “Big respect Joao Fonseca looking forward to many battles to come.”
The Briton also shared high praise for Fonseca on court after the match, having been told in his interview with Sky Sports Tennis that there is so much hype around the Brazilian.
“Yeah and deservedly so,” he replied. “I think it’s amazing for the tour and amazing for tennis that we’ve got kind of a really, really young superstar coming especially from Brazil, with such a big fan base.
READ MORE: America has its own future star who is just five places behind Joao Fonseca in the ATP rankings
“Seems like every tournament he’s going to… there are so many fans in the stadium here today, and to be a part of that, and to play against him, to see what he’s all about is really special for myself.
“I saw it, he’s such an amazing talent, hits the ball so hard, and he’s only going to improve, and it’s just more experience at this level, and he’s going to be a top, top player very soon.”
Jack Draper still has ‘room for improvement’ despite big Indian Wells win
It represented a first meeting on the ATP Tour between Draper and Fonseca, who are certain for many more battles given their current trajectories.
The former currently occupies 14th in the world rankings, with the latter in 80th after recently breaking the top 100.
But Draper needed just one hour and 15 minutes to beat Fonseca, with the Briton revealing there were no real nerves from his perspective.
Asked if his three double faults at five love had anything to do with nerves, he said: “No, not really. I kind of struggled last year a lot on my serve here.
“The conditions are very different. I think the balls are a bit different. It’s hard for the ball sometimes to come down, it flies quite a lot, and it’s something like I said I struggled with last year.
“And this year I’ve been trying to get better. I definitely served better today, but there’s still a lot of room for improvement.
“So I’m glad I came through today, because then I can go and work hard on that. Because I’d say that’s probably the only side of my game which I wasn’t too happy with today was my serve. So yeah, it was just kind of getting my rhythm right.
”And sharing a fitness update, he said: “I feel really good. I had a few problems at the back end of last year and early on this year, and it was kind of a tough one, because when I did play last year, I kind of got into consistency, because I lost a few first rounds and second rounds, so I was able to train and then go again.
“Whereas the start of this year obviously played a lot of marathon matches in Australia and then in Doha I played another five matches at the highest level.
“And my body needs to be consistently ready for that. I’m getting there, but it’s been important to just get it right at the start of the season.”
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