Jack Draper warns Jannik Sinner about his dream to seduce Emma Raducanu

Jack Draper will be hoping for an Emma Raducanu-esque performance as the British tennis player hopes to beat Jannik Sinner and then win the US Open.

After becoming ATP champion in Stuttgart earlier this summer, the 22-year-old has now reached his first Grand Slam semi-final in Flushing Meadows. And in impressive fashion, as the Briton – who currently enjoys a career-high ranking of No. 25 in the world rankings – has not dropped a set in New York so far.

Given that Draper was not a favorite for the US Open before the tournament, but has performed very well so far, some have pointed out that there were some similarities with the case of Raducanu. Three years ago, she became the first qualifier ever to win a major in Flushing Meadows, and she did not win a single set in 10 matches played.

“What Emma did was obviously incredibly inspiring. I’ve known her since I was a little girl and it was incredible to see what she did. I was very proud of her, very excited, and I thought, of course we’ve seen Andy Murray win a Grand Slam for Great Britain, but her win, it really was a fairytale run. I definitely think it fueled my fire as a competitor. I really wanted to achieve what she had done, win a Grand Slam,” the 23-year-old said.

Draper learned a number of lessons from Raducanu

When the British WTA star became a Slam champion, she was just 18 and essentially taking her first steps into professional tennis. And after enormous pressure and expectations were thrown at her back – and the 21-year-old began to struggle with poor results and constant injuries – she realised that she was simply not physically, and probably mentally, ready for whatever came her way.

Like Raducanu, Draper struggled with injuries during his first few seasons on the Tour. But now it’s a completely different situation and since he got healthy and stayed healthy for a long time, the reigning Stuttgart champion has managed to take his game to a new level.

“It’s made me realise that this is something I have to put my whole life into this sport. I have to eat the right things, train harder than I’ve ever done before, get good people around me, shut myself off a bit 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 happened to me, is definitely important for me to really look at myself and try to figure out how I can be consistent.”

Sinner Will Not Take Draper for Granted

The 2024 Australian Open champion and the 23-year-old Briton recently played doubles together at the Montreal Masters and have become somewhat of a Tour pal. And ahead of their match, the top-seeded Italian acknowledges that he will be facing an in-form rival and that he will go into the match with full knowledge of the game from the start.

“We know each other pretty well, we’re good friends off the court. It’s going to be really tough, he hasn’t lost a set yet, he’s playing great, serving great. I’m just happy to be in the semis,” Sinner said.

When Draper addressed the upcoming matchup against the No. 1 seed, he told an interesting story as he claimed that the current world No. 1 was not a good junior. The 15-time ATP champion admitted that this was true.

“I was never good in the juniors. I don’t remember playing against him in doubles, but I do remember watching him from the outside. He’s clearly left-handed, his strokes were always very, very good,” Sinner said.

“It was fun sharing the court with him in doubles in Montreal. You know, we got to know each other even better. We text each other when we’re having good times or bad times, to keep us awake. It’s a great friendship. Obviously, we try to put that aside for the hours that we’re on court. I think that’s pretty obvious. But when we shake hands, it’s friendship again and everything is fine.”

Interestingly, the British tennis player has a positive head-to-head record against the Italian. However, it should be noted that they have only played each other once and that happened on the grass courts of Queen’s in 2021 when the world number 25 won 7-6 (6) 7-6 (2).

It remains to be seen whether Draper can send Sinner home and reach his first Grand Slam final at the US Open.