Jack Draper bids to reach the final of the US Open when taking on world No 1 Jannik Sinner in a blockbuster semi-final clash from 8pm on Friday, live on Sky Sports.
Draper made it 15 straight sets won without dropping one en route to the final four at Flushing Meadows as the British No 1 comfortably beat 10th seed Alex de Minaur 6-3 7-5 6-2 in his first ever Grand Slam quarter-final.
The 22-year-old is the first British male to reach the US Open semi-finals since Andy Murray won the tournament in 2012.
There, Draper will face doubles partner and friend Sinner, who goes in search of his second Grand Slam title after winning the Australian Open to start the year.
Draper and Sinner have faced each other only once before on the ATP Tour, with the Briton getting the better of his Italian counterpart 7-6 7-6 on the grass of Queen’s Club – albeit that meeting was three years ago.
The pair will finally face off again on Friday in the cavernous surroundings of Arthur Ashe Stadium, with their semi-final meeting scheduled second on court (from 8pm) after the women’s doubles final from 5pm.
Following Draper and Sinner, there’s also the small matter of an all-American semi-final clash between 12th seed Taylor Fritz and 20th seed Frances Tiafoe – from approximately 11pm, also live on Sky Sports.
We’re not quite yet at Fred Perry levels, and the 77-year long wait for a British male Wimbledon winner before Murray finally scratched that itch in 2013, but it’s now 21 years since the United States last got to celebrate a male winner of their major championship (Andy Roddick, 2003).
Fritz of Tiafoe stand a great chance of ending that US title drought, but which of them will it be that reaches the final?
Arthur Ashe Stadium
From 5pm – Women’s doubles final
Lyudmyla Kichenok (Ukr) & Jelena Ostapenko (Lat) (7) vs Kristina Mladenovic (Fra) & Shuai Zhang (Chn)
Not before 8pm – Men’s singles semi-finals
Jannik Sinner (USA) (1) vs Jack Draper (Gbr) (25)
Taylor Fritz (USA) (12) vs Frances Tiafoe (USA) (20)
Jack Draper, after reaching the semi-finals of the US Open:
“This is not kind of like an overnight thing for me..
“I didn’t know when it would be, but hopefully from here I can do a lot of amazing things. I’m very proud of myself.
“Even though I have won all of my matches in three sets, I still feel like I have got so much left in my locker.
“Jannik is a good friend, someone I’m definitely close to.
“Huge respect for Jannik… it was amazing to play doubles with him in Montreal. I’d never won a doubles match on the tour, so to play with the No 1 player in the world was amazing and definitely learned a lot and had a lot of fun with him.”
Former British No 1 Tim Henman on Sky Sports:
“I think he can be so proud of so many different aspects. He played great tennis.
“But also mentally, there were a lot of opportunities to get distracted out there. He came out, stamped his authority on the first set and looked comfortable, and then in the second set he had a lot of opportunities.
“Dealing with adversity in any professional sport is the most difficult bit and [against De Minaur] there was plenty of adversity because he could get distracted by what was going on in the second set and that was where I think Jack showed mental fortitude, he showed maturity to find a way to come through it.”
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