After navigating the most important two weeks of his blossoming career with admirable ruthlessness and self-belief, Jack Draper walked onto Arthur Ashe Stadium for the biggest match of his career fully aware that the challenge required him to elevate both his game and physicality to new levels in order to contend with the No 1 men’s player, Jannik Sinner.
Instead, the matchup descended into total chaos as Draper struggled physically, vomiting multiple times and sweating profusely in humid conditions while still fighting hard until the end. In one of the most bizarre matches of the tournament, Sinner, who himself struggled with a wrist injury after falling mid match, edged Draper out 7-5, 7-6(3), 6-2 in a three-hour, three-minute psychodrama to reach the US Open final for the first time in his career.
With his 54th win in an incredible breakout season, Sinner is the first Italian man in history to reach the US Open singles final. Having won 34 of his 36 matches on hard courts this year, the Australian Open champion will look to cap off his season by winning his second grand slam tournament of the year.
This remains a remarkable turn of events considering the news that preceded Sinner’s presence in New York. A week before the US Open began, the Italian announced that he had twice tested positive for the banned substance clostebol in April before a recent independent tribunal determined that Sinner bore no fault or negligence for the presence of the banned substance in his body due to contamination.
Although Sinner is just four months Draper’s senior, the pair began the match with such a wide gulf in experience. Almost every aspect of this semi-final run has been new territory for Draper, who had only reached one grand slam fourth round in his career beforehand, whereas Sinner has spent the last three years inside the top 20 and he is already just the fourth active player to reach the semi-finals of all four grand slam tournaments.
The significance of the moment was also clear in the heightened activity around him. Nicky Draper, Jack’s mother, opted to take a last minute flight to New York in order to watch her son compete in his first grand slam semi-final. The US Open grounds were suddenly filled with a greater British media presence in anticipation of an enormous match. As Draper tried to keep his composure, his warmup on court six before the biggest match of his career was a flurry of activity, all eyes on him.
Both players moved through their opening service games with authority and early in the match Draper’s biggest issue was simply his serve. At 5-5, after the pair had already traded breaks early in the set, Draper’s serve capitulated. In a long, tough deuce game at 5-5, he struck three double faults, including one on break point, to hand over the decisive break. Draper finished the opening set with 52% of first serves in and six double faults.
After a fairly low profile start , the match quickly descended into total chaos in the second set as it became clear that Draper was struggling physically. His problems were reflected first in him sweating profusely, sending multiple rackets off-court to change their grips and then changing his soaking tennis shoes because they deemed too “dangerous” to compete. From midway through the second set, Draper vomited multiple times on to the court and his mobility decreased as the match went on. Even though he was struggling, Draper still managed to find big serves and excellent shotmaking in the decisive moments as a below par Sinner also repeatedly let him off the hook. Somehow, Draper kept his serve throughout the set.
At 4-4, 40-15 on Draper’s serve, Sinner produced one of the best points of the entire tournament, a brilliant defensive effort ending with him deflecting a big overhead shot from Draper with a massive forehand winner in response. But Sinner had slipped during the point. As both players struggled physically, Draper looking sickly as Sinner avoided his backhand, Sinner regrouped and closed out the second set in a dominant tie-break. With Sinner leading by two sets and Draper looking practically out on his feet, the third set was merely a formality as the world No 1 closed out the match without further drama to reach his second career grand slam final.
Draper’s physical issues have been the defining issue of his career so far, from the heat stroke he suffered in his debut match to the various injuries and problems that have hurt his attempts to rise up the rankings in recent years. He has worked extremely hard and made significant strides to reach the point where he is physically robust enough to perform on the ATP tour week after week, and to piece together this superb breakthrough run in New York, but as he departed the stadium, he surely left with the knowledge that there is more work to be done.
