Jannik Sinner thinks his opponent will give him a tough test and that the conditions will be “faster” due to semi-final taking part during the day session.
Jack Draper has naturally been inspired by Emma Raducanu, who was the first qualifier in the Open Era to win a grand slam singles title.
What Emma did was obviously incredibly inspiring. I’ve known her from a young age and to see what she did was incredible. I was very proud of her, very excited, watching it thinking, obviously we’ve watched the likes of Andy Murray winning a grand slam from Great Britain, but her winning, it was just really a fairytale run. I definitely think as a competitor, it fuelled my fire. I really wanted to achieve what she’d done, winning a grand slam.
Read more on how Draper hopes to extend his run beyond the semi-finals against and his memories of facing Jannik Sinner at junior level.
How did these two get here? Jannik Sinner beat Daniil Medvedev in his quarter-final 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 in a turbulent tussle. Across the four sets, as the momentum swung back and forth, the combined force of Sinner’s devastating groundstrokes and defence were too much for Medvedev, who generally played below par in a match that required his very best tennis.
On the other hand, Jack Draper made light work of Alex de Minaur by winning 6-3, 7-5, 6-2. From the beginning, Draper was determined to dictate on his terms, pushing the Australian behind the baseline with his heavy topspin forehand and then searching for opportunities to dictate with it.
Hello and welcome to our live blog of the first men’s singles semi-final at the 2024 US Open between Jannik Sinner and Jack Draper.
Sinner has reached three grand slam semi-finals in 2024, winning the title in Melbourne at the beginning of the year and losing to Carlos Alcaraz in the last four at Roland Garros. The world No 1 is in fine-form as winner of the most recent Masters 1000 event, the Cincinnati Open, and has notched 10 wins or more over Top 10 players in back to back seasons.
This is Draper’s semi-final debut at a grand slam. The world No 25 had failed to progress beyond the fourth round at any major but the Briton is having a breakout year, winning his first ATP title in Stuttgart and making the final in Adelaide. Draper has made it to this stage at Flushing Meadows without dropping a set, the first man to do so since 2020. He is also the first Briton to reach the men’s singles semi-finals since Andy Murray in 2012.
This will be the second tour-level meeting between the two. The last and only meeting between the two at tour-level was in 2021 at Queen’s where a 19-year-old Draper beat the then world No 23 Sinner 7-6 (6), 7-6 (2).
With the American duo Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz competing in the other semi-final, a new champion will be crowned in New York on Sunday. Sinner defeated the last former champion in the competition, the 2021 winner Daniil Medvedev in the previous round.
Join me for what is sure to be an intriguing battle on Arthur Ashe. And if you have any thoughts, questions, concerns, predictions, theories or secrets you want to share then drop me an email. You can find all the information at the top of this blog.
Play scheduled for 8pm BST/3pm EST.
