Draper shocked by qualifier De Jong at French Open

Jack Draper was beaten by Dutch qualifier Jesper de Jong as Britain's campaign at the French Open got off to an inauspicious start.

The 22-year-old Draper is ranked 35th in the world, but lost 7-5, 6-4, 6-7 (3-7), 3-6, 6-3 to 176th-seeded De Jong on the first day at Roland Garros.

The British number two had problems serving and was broken nine times by De Jong.

He made too many unforced errors and showed his frustration after a double fault gave him a 5-3 lead in the fifth set to De Jong, who scored the biggest win of his career with his serve.

Draper was the first of six British players to step onto the clay at Roland Garros, with Andy Murray second later on Sunday.

Murray returns to the tournament – after not playing since 2020 – when he plays against fellow three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka in the night session on Court Philippe-Chatrier.

Murray, 37, could be playing at Roland Garros for the last time after hinting that he is likely to end his career later this year.

Four other Britons – Katie Boulter, Cameron Norrie, Dan Evans and Harriet Dart – will play their opening matches on Monday and Tuesday.

Annoyed Draper still has work to do

Draper is a great talent with ambitions to break into the top 10 in the world, but this loss was another example of the work he still has to do.

To achieve his goal, the left-hander recently brought South African former world number nine Wayne Ferreira into his coaching team. Before the match against De Jong, he said his game – especially his serve – was “changing”.

One indication of this was that he only managed 50% of his first serves and won only 51% of his second serve points.

Double faults also occurred at crucial moments, especially at 30-40 in the seventh game of the deciding match, which secured De Jong the victory.

The 23-year-old De Jong was brimming with confidence after his three qualifying wins and reaching the main draw on the clay court, while Draper lacked confidence for most of the match.

After narrowly losing the first set by a break in the twelfth game, Draper increased his lead to 4-2 in the second set, but lost the lead again as De Jong won the last four games of the set.

None of Draper's previous seven losses in a Grand Slam main draw came in straight sets.

Although Draper showed a lot of fighting spirit to prevent this, he was not yet at his level and let De Jong get away with some passive returns in the rallies.

A beautiful forehand winner down the line took him into a 5-3 lead at the crucial moment of the tiebreak before a double fault and a backhand into the net from De Jong kept the match going.

Draper found his rhythm and broke in the fourth set, and after an hour-long rain delay the match went to a deciding set.

The Brit had only played a five-set match once – at this year’s Australian Open, when he defeated Marcos Giron under brutal conditions.

This was a milestone in Draper's career and demonstrated that he had developed the physical and mental resilience to overcome adversity.

However, Draper was unable to win another Grand Slam playoff, meaning De Jong had to face third-seeded Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz in the second round.