British No 1 Jack Draper triumphs in straight sets on his return from injury – confidently surpassing Alexei Popyrin to book last-16 spot at the Qatar Open

Jack Draper’s comeback from injury got off to a winning start in Doha as he beat Alexei Popyrin 6-2, 7-6.

Tendonitis in the 23-year-old’s hip flared up in the off-season and forced him to retire from his fourth-round match against Carlos Alcaraz at the Australian Open.

We had not seen him since as he gave the joint time to recover but here in the Middle East there appeared to be no problems – either with his body or his game.

His ballstriking was far better than in any of his wins at the Australian Open, when he battled pain and lack of matches to win three five-setters in a row before his body gave out.

Draper played two Aussies in a row in Melbourne and here was another, but the atmosphere was considerably more subdued on a sparsely populated court. Next up is yet another man from Down Under, qualifier Chris O’Connell. Win that, as he should, and the likely third-round opponent is Novak Djokovic, in what would be their first meeting since Draper took a set off the great Serb on Centre Court as a teenager.

Considering he had not played for a month this was a fine performance from the world No16, playing in Qatar as the No8 seed. The synthesis of aggressive hitting and defensive resolve was reminiscent of his run to the US Open semi-finals last year.

Jack Draper has made his highly anticipated return from injury at the Qatar Open on Monday

The British sensation has confidently beat Australian player Alexei Popyrin 6-2, 7-6

Draper is set to face another Aussie, Chris O’Connell, and could potentially see Novak Djokovic as his third-round opponent 

He also used the drop shot liberally, forcing the big Aussie to hustle forward.

Popyrin double faulted to go 3-2 down and Draper hit a brace of brilliant backhand passing shots to break again.

He served out what was pretty much a perfect set with three consecutive aces. The second set was far closer and Draper had to save a set point with a blistering backhand winner. But he played a rock-solid tiebreak to go through.

Draper has his reserve coaching team here this week. While coach James Trottman and physio Will Herbert are given a break, Alex Ward and Jonny Binding are filling in.