Britain’s Jack Draper was given a tough test in the first round of the US Open, before he beat Argentinian Federico Gomez 6-4 7-5 6-7(9) 6-2.

And he admitted after the match that he had gone for the sleeveless look in New York to copy Rafael Nadal, now he is happier with his arms.

It was Draper’s first match for nearly two months due to injury – he learned that he had been suffering from bone bruising in his left arm following Wimbledon – and he came through a stern examination.

Asked on court if he was “absolutely going sleeveless”, Draper said: “I always grew up watching Rafa and I’ve always wanted to rock the sleeveless one day.

“There was a time a couple of years ago where I didn’t have the arms for it, I looked terrible, but now it’s coming together.”

Those comments tallied with what he said before the match about now having a “man’s body”.

“I have worked incredibly hard to improve my physicality on the court,” he said.

“I think part of it is my genetics and growing into a bit more of a man’s body. I think that took me a long time.”

Draper made the first significant move in the match, producing some fine groundstrokes as he broke serve in the seventh game on the way to taking the opening set.

Draper then broke the Gomez serve in the third game of the second set, sealing it with a smash. And he soon took the set, clinching it with a brilliant forehand winner.

Any idea he would win the match soon after that were blown away.

Gomez broke Draper’s serve at the start of the third set as he moved into a 3-0 lead. But the Briton broke back in the seventh game as the set went to a tie-break.

Draper took control of it early, moving 3-0 ahead, but Gomez fought back, helped by one wondrous forehand winner down the line when he was on the stretch.

Draper had a match point he could not convert and eventually Gomez, with some pure power hitting, won the set to keep himself alive in the match.

But the underdog ran out of steam after that, and Draper soon claimed victory to reach round two.

He said afterwards that he did not have “too much expectation” for this tournament given his time out of action.

“I wasn’t too sure if I was going to make it here,” Draper said.

“It wasn’t my finest performance but credit to my opponent, he played some outstanding tennis.

“I look forward to hopefully improving and getting better as the tournament carries on.

“I’m not putting too much expectation on myself. I’ve put in the work, if I can get that level back I’m going to be tough to beat.”

Watch and stream top tennis action live and on demand on TNT Sports and discovery+