Britain’s Jack Draper reaches Queen’s semis

LONDON: Britain’s Jack Draper continued his Wimbledon build-up by reaching the semifinals at Queen’s Club for the first time with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 defeat of American Brandon Nakashima on Friday.

Draper not only kept himself on track for the prestigious ATP 500 title but also secured the win that guarantees a top-four seeding at Wimbledon, where he will be the big home hope.

The 23-year-old was fully tested by world number 32 Nakashima, and his powerful game began to misfire as he lost the second set on a baking hot day at the Andy Murray Arena.

But Draper settled back into the groove in the deciding set and broke serve in the seventh game with one of his trademark forehand pile drivers.

The left-hander had to save a break point when serving for the match at 5-4 but recovered to seal victory and set up a clash with Czech Jiri Lehecka, who had earlier beaten Britain’s Jacob Fearnley 7-5, 6-2.

“It means the world to me to reach the semifinals here,” Draper, bidding to become the first British player to win the title at the prestigious west London club since Murray won it for the fifth time in 2016.

While being ranked fourth means Draper will avoid either defending champion Carlos Alcaraz or world number one Jannik Sinner until the semifinals at Wimbledon, Draper shrugged off the significance of that when asked about it.

“I kept getting asked about that by the journalists, but I’ve got to reach the semifinals first,” he said.

“But it is an incredible position, I was at Wimbledon last year ranked 40, so to go there as fourth seed is a testament to all the hard work my team has done, so very proud of that.”

Alcaraz was following Draper on to court as he took on Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech in his quarterfinal. Agencies

 Also Read: Gill becomes fifth Indian batter to score hundred on Test captaincy debut

Also Watch: