Jack Draper beat Holger Rune in straight sets to win the biggest title of his career at Indian Wells.
Draper has received messages from Boris Becker amongst many others following this triumph, after overcoming some of the top players on the ATP Tour in California.
This includes Draper beating Carlos Alcaraz, who was the two-time defending champion at Indian Wells, in a match that he has since admitted was strange.
After winning the biggest title of his career, Martina Navratilova has reacted to both Indian Wells finals alongside Tim Henman.
Tim Henman and Martina Navratilova react to Jack Draper winning Indian Wells
After a tumultuous semi-final between Draper and Alcaraz, the Brit looked to play a much more convincing final against Rune, and did just that after dropping only four games.
Following watching his compatriot win the Indian Wells title, former world number four Henman suggested that Draper could now be a contender for major titles.
“Soak up this moment and build on it because this is the first of many Masters 1000’s and obviously the next step is that he could be in the finals of Slams and he could win Slams,” Henman said on Sky Sports. “Onwards and upwards for Jack!”
Someone who knows a thing or two about winning Grand Slams is Navratilova, having lifted 18 major titles just in singles.
Following up from Henman’s comments, Navratilova echoed the sentiment that Draper is now in contention for the biggest titles if he can stay injury free.
“He will be number seven in the rankings which means he doesn’t have to play the big guys until the quarters, that is helpful,” said Navratilova.
“And if he can win here with the game he has he can win on anything. So I think he is on the conversation. He stays healthy, he is in the conversation.”
The Indian Wells best run at a Grand Slam tournament came last year, when Draper reached the US Open semi-finals.
Jack Draper becomes highest ranked British player since Andy Murray
As a result of Draper winning the Indian Wells title, he will rise to a new career-high ranking of world number seven.
The last time that a British singles player was ranked that highly was Andy Murray in 2017.
With his latest victory, Draper has already done something that Murray was not able to by winning the Indian Wells title.
Murray’s best performance at Indian Wells came in 2009, when he reached the final before losing in straight sets to Rafael Nadal.
The only other British singles champion at Indian Wells is Cameron Norrie, who won the biggest title of his career in 2021.
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