US Open: Draper withdraws, Bergs to the third round
Zizou Bergs benefited from the forfeit of Jack Draper on Thursday night. He’ll play the winner of the match between Canadian Gabriel Diallo, the No 31 seed, and Spaniard Jaume Munar in the next round
Jack Draper, US Open 2025 | © Imago / PsNewz
British No. 5 seed Jack Draper was forced to withdraw from the US Open on Wednesday, handing Belgian Zizou Bergs a walkover into the third round. The 23-year-old Brit’s decision came ahead of his scheduled second-round match and was due to an ongoing arm injury that has plagued him for months.
Draper, the world No. 5, had been battling bone stress and bruising in his left humerus since Wimbledon, forcing him to miss more than seven weeks of competition. Despite his condition, he had fought through a difficult four-set opening match against Argentine qualifier Federico Agustin Gomez, a win he admitted afterward was played without his normal power on his serve. However, the pain became too much, and he announced his withdrawal on social media, stating, “I have to do what is right and look after myself.”
Draper will drop at the rankings
The withdrawal has significant implications for Draper’s ranking, as he will be unable to defend the valuable points he earned from his remarkable semifinal run at the 2024 US Open. A Grand Slam semifinal appearance is worth 750 ranking points. Without a successful defense, Draper is expected to lose his points and drop from his current No. 5 world ranking to No. 7, or even lower, depending on the other players’ results. Khachanov, de Minaur, Musetti, and Rune, among others, are poised to jump ahead of him. For a player on the rise and a contender for a spot at the year-end ATP Finals in Turin, this is a considerable blow.
For Zizou Bergs, the advancement is a real step. The world No. 48 moves into the third round of the US Open for the first time in his career. He had previously dispatched Chun-Hsin Tseng in straight sets (6-3, 6-4, 6-3) in the first round. Bergs will now face the winner of the second-round match between Canadian No. 31 seed Gabriel Diallo and Spaniard Jaume Munar. This unexpected opportunity opens up a significant chance for the Belgian to make a deep run in the tournament.
New York (Grand Slam), other second-round results (USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, hard, USD 90.000.000, most recent results first):
- Nuno Borges vs. Tommy Paul
- Alexander Zverev vs. Jacob Fearnley
- Shintaro Mochizuki vs. Alex De Minaur
- Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Daniel Altmaier
- Roman Safiullin vs. Felix Auger-Aliassime
- Alexander Bublik vs. Tristan Schoolkate
- Gabriel Diallo vs. Jaume Munar
- Jannik Sinner vs. Alexei Popyrin
- Leandro Riedi vs. Francisco Cerundolo
- Karen Khachanov vs. Kamil Majchrzak
- Jenson Brooksby vs. Flavio Cobolli
- Valentin Royer vs. Denis Shapovalov
- Tristan Boyer vs. Andrey Rublev
- Adam Walton vs. Chak Lam Coleman Wong
- Lorenzo Musetti vs. David Goffin
- Ben Shelton vs. Pablo Carreno Busta
- Mattia Bellucci vs. Carlos Alcaraz
- Jan-Lennard Struff vs. Holger Rune
- Jordan Thompson vs. Adrian Mannarino
- Luciano Darderi vs. Eliot Spizzirri
- Frances Tiafoe vs. Martin Damm
- Jakub Mensik vs. Ugo Blanchet
- Arthur Rinderknech vs. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina: wednesday
- Cameron Norrie vs. Francisco Comesana: wednesday
- Benjamin Bonzi vs. Marcos Giron: wednesday
- Lloyd Harris vs. Taylor Fritz: wednesday
- Raphael Collignon vs. Casper Ruud: wednesday
- Joao Fonseca vs. Tomas Machac: wednesday
- Novak Djokovic (7) beat Zachary Svajda (Q): 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-3, 6-1
- Jiri Lehecka (20) beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry: 3-6, 6-0, 6-2, 6-4
- Brandon Nakashima vs. Jerome Kym: wednesday
