Rome, May 10 (UNI) Great Britain's Jack Draper booked his place in the last 32 of the Italian Open with a confident straight sets win over Luciano Darderi.
Fifth seed Draper triumphed 6-1 6-4 against Italy's Darderi who was backed by a passionate home support at the Foro Italico in Rome.
Draper, who came into the tournament on the back of reaching the final at the Madrid Open last week, banked the opening set in just 24 minutes.
The 23-year-old broke the serve of Darderi three times as he hit 12 winners in the first set against the world number 46, the BBC reported.
Darderi made Draper work harder in the second set as the British number one saved seven break points to wrap up the match in one hour and 18 minutes.
"There was always a chance I might be a bit mentally flat but I felt great," Draper told BBC Sport.
"I want to keep performing and being consistent. Greatness is in consistency and it's my job to go again no matter how tough it is."
Draper faces Czech qualifier Vit Kopriva after he claimed a 3-6 6-4 6-4 win over Sebastian Baez of Argentina to reach the third round.
Elsewhere, British number three Cameron Norrie was knocked out after a 6-4 6-2 loss to 10th seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia.
Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov suffered a shock 7-5 6-3 defeat to Italian wild card Francesco Passaro, who is ranked 86 places below him.
Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Arthur Fils, Lorenzo Musetti and Holger Rune were among the seeded players who safely progressed.
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