Jack Draper is hoping to pull off an Emma Raducanu as the British tennis player hopes he can upset Jannik Sinner and then go on to win the US Open.
After becoming an ATP champion in Stuttgart earlier this summer, the 22-year-old has now been through to his first Grand Slam semifinal at Flushing Meadows. And it has come in a pretty impressive way since the Briton – who is currently enjoying a career-high ranking of No. 25 in the world – hasn’t dropped a set in New York so far.
Considering that Draper wasn’t a US Open favorite before the tournament started but has been doing extremely well, some were quick to point out how there were some similarities to the Raducanu case – three years ago, she became the first qualifier ever to win a Major at Flushing Meadows and she did without a set lost in 10 matches played.
“What Emma did was obviously incredibly inspiring. I’ve known her from a young age and to see what she did was incredible. I was very proud of her, very excited, watching it thinking, obviously we’ve watched the likes of Andy Murray winning a Grand Slam from Great Britain, but her winning, it was just really a fairytale run. I definitely think as a competitor, it fuelled my fire. I really wanted to achieve what she’d done, winning a Grand Slam,” the 23-year-old said.
Draper has learned some lessons from Raducanu
When the British WTA star became a Slam champion, she was just 18 and was basically making her first steps in pro tennis. And after massive pressure and expectations landed on her back – and the 21-year-old started to struggle with poor results and constant injuries – she realized that she simply wasn’t physically and probably mentally ready for everything that came her way.
Just like Raducanu, Draper also dealt with various injuries in his first couple of seasons on the Tour. But now, it’s a completely different situation, and since becoming healthy and staying that way for a longer period of time, the reigning Stuttgart champion has managed to elevate his game to a new level.
“It’s made me realize that this is something where I have to put all my life into this sport. I have to eat the right things, train even harder than I ever have done before. Get good people around me and kind of shut myself off and really focus on what’s going to make me one of the best players in the world,” the top-ranked British male tennis player explained.
“And I think learning those lessons, learning from other players and their different experiences, and seeing what’s gone on with me, I think it’s definitely important that I really looked at myself and tried to figure out how I’m going to be consistent.”
Sinner won’t be taking Draper for granted
Recently, the 2024 Australian Open champion and the 23-year-old Briton played doubles together at the Montreal Masters and they have somewhat become Tour friends. And going into their match, the top-seeded Italian acknowledges that he is set to face an in-form rival and that he will enter the match fully aware right from the start.
“We know each other quite well, we are good friends off the court. It’s going to be very tough, he hasn’t lost one set, he’s playing great, serving great. I’m just happy to be in the semis,” Sinner said.
When addressing the upcoming matchup against the No. 1 seed, Draper told an interesting story as he claimed that the current world No. 1 wasn’t a good junior. Commenting on that, the 15-time ATP champion admitted that was true.
“In juniors, I was never good. I don’t remember playing against him in doubles, but I do remember seeing him from outside. Obviously a lefty, his ball striking was always very, very good,” Sinner said.
“It was nice to share the court with him in doubles in Montreal. You know, we got to know each other even more. We text each other when we have good or bad times, trying to keep us up. It’s a great friendship. Obviously we try to put this away for the hours we are on court. I think that’s quite obvious. But whenever we shake our hands, it’s again friendship back and all is going to be good.”
Interestingly, the British tennis player has a positive head-to-head record against the Italian. However, it should be noted that they only played once and it happened on the grass courts of Queen’s in 2021 when the world No. 25 won 7-6 (6) 7-6 (2).
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