It was a day of upsets at the BNP Paribas Open. After Holger Rune knocked off Daniil Medvedev in the first semifinal, Jack Draper ousted Carlos Alcaraz 6-1, 0-6, 6-4. Draper prevailed in one hour and 44 minutes to reach his first Masters 1000 title match and clinch a debut in the top 10 of the ATP rankings on Monday.
A roller-coaster ride saw Draper produce a breadstick in the first set only to see Alcaraz come up with a bagel in the second.
That led to a more competitive third in which the 14th-ranked Brit led by a double-break but failed to serve out the match at 5-2. On his second time of asking at 5-4, Draper delivered a clutch and convincing hold to clinch victory.
“It was a strange match in all honesty,” Draper assessed. “Carlos came out, he was a bit flat. The first set went very quickly and then I had a chance in the first game of the second set. He came up with an ace. It kind of happened to me what happened to him in the first set. I got tired, low on energy. Against the top players in the world, they can change the momentum very quickly. I just got lost out there for 25 minutes…. Somehow I managed to get over the line there at the end.
“The first time (I served for it), I worked so hard to break in that game to go 5-2. I was still physically a bit struggling and from the nerves. (It was) my first ATP semifinal on the 1000 side. Obviously (there was) a lot riding on it–top 10 for me and stuff. Against Carlos there’s no room for error. I did well to come through the second time.”
There will be no third time in a row when it comes to Alcaraz triumphing at the Indian Wells Masters. The 21-year-old, who beat Medvedev in each of the two previous finals, was beaten in the desert for the first time since 2022 (semifinals against Rafael Nadal). He attributed the setback to worrying about Draper.
“I always say that I have to be focused on myself, on my own game,” Alcaraz noted. “I think today I was more worried about his level, his game, than myself. So I think that’s was a big problem [for] me, that I was always thinking about his weakness than my best things. So when you’re thinking more about the opponent than yourself, then it is a big problem.
“So that’s what happened today. Since the beginning of the day, since the morning, I was thinking about his game — because he’s really tough, he’s really solid, and it’s going to be a really physical match. So I was thinking all these things since the beginning of the day, and I think that (was) a big problem.”
Draper, who will face Holger Rune in Sunday’s championship match, will climb to either No. 8 or No. 9 in the world on Monday.
nice one, JD