Jack Draper has won his first ever match at the French Open after fighting back to beat Mattia Bellucci.
Draper is the current world number five, achieving that ranking after winning Indian Wells and reaching the final of the Madrid Open.
Despite having never won at the clay court major before, Draper has been backed at the French Open to go on a run.
Following his breakthrough at the start of the 2025 season, the comparisons between Draper and the now-retired Rafael Nadal have grown.
What Jack Draper is doing which Jim Courier thinks is just like Rafael Nadal
Like Nadal, Draper is actually right-handed, but chooses to play left-handed to great effect.
Draper has previously been inspired by Nadal, who has won the French Open a record 14 times.
After Draper won his first round match against Bellucci, 3-6 6-1 6-4 6-2, former world number one Jim Courier compared the Brit’s forehand to Nadal.
“I think it’s tricky because you don’t practice with the court closed on these show courts so you have to adjust to that type of environment and that’s not always easy,” Courier said on TNT Sports. “And lefty and lefty. Should that be illegal? That takes time to adjust to as well!
“Bellucci is anything but a clay court player, he is a guy who goes and plays hard court challengers rather than play on clay, so he was playing a different style of tennis to a lot of tennis trying to take it to Jack. But once Jack settled in he was able to overpower him and that’s what I like so much about Jack’s game.
“He has the power now but he doesn’t have to take a lot of risk to do a lot of damage with the top spin he is getting on that forehand – the numbers say that it is Nadal like with the speeds and the spins, it is right there with Rafa.”
While these comments towards the world number five are complimentary, Draper has previously dismissed Nadal comparisons.
Tim Henman explains how he thinks Jack Draper has made ‘huge improvements’
Former British number one Tim Henman has been following Draper’s career closely, with big hopes for his compatriot.
Following Draper’s first round win at the French Open, Henman explained what he thinks the 23-year-old has improved the most.
“I think one of the areas that he has made huge improvements is the physicality because when you are moving around to get that forehand into play you are using a lot of energy with the footwork but now he has built the resilience, he has had some injuries in the past but he is looking very impressive,” said Henman.
Draper will now move onto his second round match against Gael Monfils, who came through a five set match in his opener.
Their only previous meeting came on hard courts at the Canadian Open in 2022, where Draper won after Monfils retired.
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