Cameron Norrie touted Jack Draper as a top-10 player of the future after withstanding a strong challenge from his young compatriot to reach the third round of the Miami Open.
Draper, 20, has won three titles on the second-tier Challenger Tour this season to leap into the top 150 and he made it 11 victories in a row against veteran Gilles Simon in round one to claim a first Masters tournament victory.
That set up an intriguing clash with British number one Norrie, who is on course to break into the top 10 for the first time after this tournament, and the 26-year-old battled to a 7-6 (5) 6-4 victory.
Speaking to Amazon Primer Video, Norrie said of Draper: “I’m excited to see how he’s going to do in the future. I think if he can play week in, week out he’s going to have a very, very good career and I’m sure he can get easily top 10 for me.”
Draper, who has made qualifying for the main draw of Wimbledon on ranking this summer a goal, fought back from 5-2 down to force a tie-break in the opening set, mixing power off his serve and groundstrokes with finesse at the net.
Norrie kept his nerve to edge it and a break in the seventh game of the second set proved enough to send him through to a clash with either John Isner or Hugo Gaston.
Norrie and Draper have practised together a lot, and Norrie said: “It’s not easy coming in against Jack. He’s such a big talent and hits the ball big on both sides.
“The court surprised me a little bit, it was very slow out here. I managed to play the bigger points a little bit better than he did and I think that was the difference in the end.”
