"Good healthy competition for us": The British Empire as Jack Draper lauds Norrie and Fearnley after Madrid Open exploits

Jack Draper may have excelled on clay in seeing off Tallon Griekspoor 6-3, 6-4 in a wide open section of the Madrid Open draw but Cameron Norrie and Jacob Fearnley joined him in a real day for British Tennis.

Fearnley was a rival and friend as a kid for Draper but has found his way up the hard way and was one of the top winners last season in terms of match wins. He also dodged an ankle roll and painkillers to defeat Tomas Machac.

While Norrie made it Czechmate as he took down Jiri Lehecka 2-6, 6-4, 6-0. He now faces Gabriel Diallo so it is all looking up and speaking to Sky Sports, Draper lauded the Brit bonanza.

"Cam obviously had an injury last year so to see him coming back is great," Draper told Sky Sports.

"And Jacob, someone my age, incredible player. The British public don't really know much about him yet but he's going to be, I think, one of the best players in the world.

"Cam's been up there too and he can do that as well, so I think it's really exciting for British tennis and good healthy competition for us."

He also added that despite the win it is still very much a learning curve in his direction. As a player who has only really excelled on grass and hard, it is a new surface to fully master. He struggled last week against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in Monte-Carlo but he has since practiced with Jannik Sinner who returns in Rome.

"I'm still relatively new to the clay so I knew it was going to be a tough challenge," he added.

"Everything was ticking over really nicely so I hope I can carry on gaining more and more confidence and getting more and more effective on this surface."