Draper hits QF in controversial win

Briton Jack Draper earned a freak win into the Cincinnati Masters quarter-finals after a controversial shot which could have been ruled a double bounce.

The heir to Andy Murray beat Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 on a scooping volley from the ground which would have been reviewed in football.

But without instant replay technology in the sport, the decidedly dicey save on match point was allowed to stand, thereby giving Draper the win and sending him into the last eight to face Dane Holger Rune.

The chair umpire was unable to make a clear call on a ball which looked to have hit the court on the Briton’s side of the court just as Draper’s racquet met the ball at the same instant, landing a winner after a bounce off of the net cord.

Draper, who admitted he was concentrating only on his game, was amenable to a re-play but the chair did not call for one.

“I didn’t see what happened,” Draper said. “The umpire did not call a double-bounce. As a player I was focusing on what I was doing.

“If the supervisor (called to the court) had said that it was, I 100 per cent would have repeated the point.

“It’s not fair to Felix (for me) to win the match that way and I would have been happy to do the right thing.

“But I couldn’t make the call myself.”