Indian Wells Final Breakdown: Draper vs. Rune

Match Breakdown

Indian Wells Final: Draper vs. Rune

On Sunday, 23 year old Jack Draper crushed Holger Rune 6-2, 6-2 to win Indian Wells. Draper played at an incredibly high level and made quick work of the Dane. Had Rune not taken a pouty potty break between sets, the match could have been less than an hour.

So let’s jump into Draper’s strategy and learn what he did to give Holger hell.

It Starts with the Serve

The 6’ 4” lefty had one of the best serving days of his life.

Of the 20 serves he hit in the first set, 11 were unreturned, including 7 aces. On any surface, that’s insane. But to do that on a slow, outdoor hard court (where returners have more time), is straight up cheating.

In total, he won 24 of 26 points when he made his first serve, and didn’t face a break point all match. Did someone say serve bot?

Attack the Rune Forehand

Once the rally started, Draper had one mission: attack the Rune forehand. It’s his less consistent groundstroke of the two, and it was utterly garbage definitely off on Sunday.

The British No. 1 took full advantage of Rune’s weakness and peppered his forehand the entire match. If you count the deuce-side middle shots in the graphic below, Draper hit close to 70% of his groundstrokes to the Rune forehand.

After pounding away at this side, Don Draper waited for the right opportunity to take his own inside-in, and get Holger on the move. The point at 2-0 30-15 was the best example of this. Draper hit 6 shots in a row to Rune’s forehand before ripping an inside-in winner.

To nail this point home, the court-side mics even picked up Draper’s coach urging him to keep hitting to that side, saying, “Early backhand to his forehand.” Meaning early in the rally.

You’d think that Rune would catch on to this tactic — but the fact of the matter was that he didn’t have confidence in his forehand, was playing like shit, and couldn’t find a way to disrupt Draper’s rhythm.

Deep Return Position

Draper returned serve from where Steph Curry shoots 3s — the logo. This gave him extra time, allowed him to take big cuts at returns, and helped him get to neutral in the rally immediately.

This tactic worked particularly well in the desert, where the thin air made the balls bounce higher than at most other venues. Draper’s heavy-topspin returns kicked up so far out of Rune’s strike zone, it was hard for him to attack and be offensive off of his serve.

Zooming out, Draper couldn’t have executed these tactics better. The Brit had an incredible run in the desert — beating Joao Fonseca, Jenson Brooksby, Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton (crushed the Americans, damn), and Carlos Alcaraz on his way to the title.

With the win, he jumps into the Top 10 for the first time — important because it gives him an advantage at upcoming majors as a high seed. He’ll also wake up in a couple of weeks with an additional $1,200,000 in his Chase Checking account. Not bad for a few weeks in Tennis Paradise. 😎

Trivia

Which player’s silhouette is this?

A. Casper Ruud

B. Reilly Opelka

C. Alex de Minaur

D. Frances Tiafoe

Find out at the bottom!

Meet the Player

Sofia Kenin

From: USA 🇺🇸

Best Slam Result: Winner of the 2020 Australian Open (at just 21 years old!)

Career High Ranking: 4

Fun Fact: Treat food is frozen yogurt — cookies & cream with Hershey’s on top

Game Analysis: I love Kenin’s brand of tennis. Why? Because she doesn’t just bludgeon the ball from the baseline. She changes up the pace with the slice, draws her opponents forward with drop shots, and even throws up the occasional moon ball on defense. These tools make for entertaining tennis and a tough day at the office for any opponent.

Career Prediction: Now hovering at 50 in the world, it seems like Kenin’s singles career is waning. But she’s a strong doubles player (currently top 30 in the world). I wouldn’t be surprised if she stayed on tour after her singles career to make a living playing dubs.

Memes

Answer

D. Frances Tiafoe

When he was shown the silhouette, Taylor Fritz said it was obviously Frances because, “his ass is sticking out like a foot” 😂