Draper tackles De Minaur rematch with US Open semis in sight | Jack Draper

A A few days after claiming his first grand slam victory at Wimbledon in 2022, a 20-year-old Jack Draper earned a rare chance to test his mettle against one of the world’s best players in best-of-five sets. The early returns from his second-round clash on No. 1 Court with Alex de Minaur were encouraging. Despite the 67 ranking places and three years difference, they went into the battle as equals and were completely equal after the two exciting, thrilling sets.

The intensity of their exchanges, however, left a significant impression on the challenger and Draper spent the rest of the match panting and hunched over as he faded in the final two sets. Between his undeniable raw talent and the physical problems that eventually saw him handcuffed, the match was a perfect reflection of Draper’s early development.

Now they meet again on Wednesday in the quarterfinals of the US Open, perhaps the biggest match of both their careers. In a draw that has seen countless upsets and early exits, with third seed Carlos Alcaraz losing early in their section, there is no top player to beat on the way to the last four. This is such a huge opportunity for both of them.

While De Minaur has embraced a more attacking style of play, taking the ball earlier and strengthening his forehand to impose himself on the top players, he will once again be looking to extend the exchanges, wear Draper down and test all the physical issues that Draper has repeatedly struggled with since his emergence. After so many injuries and absences, Draper has worked admirably to build himself up into an athlete who can compete with the best. He must now show how far he has come, especially against an opponent who has won all three of their previous meetings.

Despite reaching his first Grand Slam quarter-final without dropping a set, Draper has repeatedly described his run in New York as “weird”. He is understandably unhappy with his average first serve percentage of 53%, but he has been incredibly clutch, saving 20 of 21 break points and losing serve just once, repeatedly stopping opponents from building momentum. Against a player and returner like De Minaur, he will clearly need to land more first serves and maintain aggression with his forehand. Draper has also shown his game in fine form at the US Open, combining neat net forays with serve and volley attempts. He will need them to keep De Minaur off balance and break down his defence.

Today, Draper is an incredibly ambitious figure who believes he can become a top player and compete for the biggest titles in the world for most of his career. But it took a while for him to gain that deep confidence. Before the quarterfinals, Draper reflected on a journey that has seen him go through two periods where he seriously considered quitting tennis. The first period was when he began his journey on the lower rungs of the professional circuit.

“When you’re younger, you have all these big dreams of winning Wimbledon and all that stuff,” Draper said. “And then you come out of the juniors, and you’re in the grind, you’re in the 15Ks, the challengers, the emotional … just, it’s crazy, you have to go to all these tough places to play tennis and beat guys. And it’s really tough. It’s not the strawberries and cream Wimbledon that I was expecting. And so it was, it was a real grind for a couple of years, kind of getting my head around the nature of the tennis world and the nature of how hard I’m going to have to work to be a top player, and the travel and the sacrifice.”

After deciding to fight and beginning his rise, Draper’s doubts overwhelmed him again in 2022 at the height of his various physical problems, when he had lost almost all confidence in his body and its ability to withstand the rigors of professional tennis. “I was thinking, with all the injuries I had and the hard times I had, would I be good enough again to continue to be the top player that I wanted to be, because I never wanted to play tennis again to be a player who wasn’t going to be a top player,” Draper said.

All those struggles only strengthened his determination to reach the top and these moments, fighting on the biggest stadiums deep in a Grand Slam tournament, are exactly what he has been working towards. It will be fascinating to see if he is truly ready to seize his chance and go even further.