Britain’s Jack Draper got his Miami Open campaign off to a strong start with a 6-3 6-2 win over Taro Daniel to reach the second round on the opening day of action.
The 22-year-old hit 10 aces, 22 winners and didn’t face a single break point in a confident straight-sets victory that took 69 minutes.
Draper will face No. 22 seed Nicolas Jarry of Chile in the next round.
Draper has had an up-and-down season so far, enjoying impressive runs to the final in Adelaide and semi-finals in Acapulco, but suffering early exits at the Australian Open and Indian Wells.
He headed to Miami for the second leg of the ‘Sunshine Swing’ looking to right some wrongs after a first-round exit to Christopher O’Connell in Indian Wells, and the 6’4” lefty came out swinging.
Draper’s big serve got him off to a good start as he lost just two points in his opening three service games, landing two aces in the process.
But Daniel kept pace and avoided coughing up any break points until game six, where Draper put down the hammer with a winner to earn a couple, taking the first for a 4-2 lead.
The Brit landed another two aces as he consolidated with an emphatic love hold, and a hold apiece from there closed out the opening set in 36 minutes.
Things looked to be unravelling further for Daniel when he double-faulted to hand Draper break point in the opening game of the second set, but the Japanese player recovered for a hard-earned hold.
His resistance didn’t last long, as Draper followed up another strong hold with an early break before a thumping consolidation game that started with back-to-back aces put him 3-1 up.
Daniel mustered a love hold, but saw few chinks in the Draper armour as the world No. 42 hit three more aces in the following game before landing the crucial blow by breaking for a third time, winning all four points for a 5-2 lead.
From there, the youngster made no mistake as he produced his 10th ace of the match to serve out in style.
Draper, competing in Miami for the third time, has matched his best run at the event by reaching the second round, where he lost to compatriot Cameron Norrie last year.
Elsewhere, Denis Shapovalov, a Miami semi-finalist in 2019, overcame Luciano Darderi 6-3 6-7(3) 6-4 to earn a meeting with 10th seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.
There were also wins for Luca van Assche and Botic van de Zandschulp over Pavel Kotov and Rinky Hijikata respectively.
Van Assche will face seventh seed Casper Ruud in the second round, while Van de Zandschulp is up against No. 14 seed Ugo Humbert.