NEW YORK — Jack Draper powered into his first Grand Slam semifinal, beating Alex De Minaur 6-3, 7-5, 6-2 on Wednesday to become the first man since 2020 to reach the final four at the US Open without dropping a set.
The No. 25 seed from Britain relied on his serve that reached 128 mph to set up some of his 40 winners in the match, and he broke the 10th-seeded de Minaur’s serve six times.
Draper is the fourth different British man in the Open era to reach the semifinals at Flushing Meadows, and first since Andy Murray won the title in 2012.
He will face either top-seeded Jannik Sinner or No. 5 Daniil Medvedev in Friday’s semifinals. Medvedev was the last man to reach the semifinals in Flushing Meadows without dropping a set, the year before he won the 2021 title.
Draper’s win over De Minaur, the 10th seed, is his second straight over an ATP top-10 player after taking out No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz at Queen’s Club in June. Prior to that, Draper had a 2-11 record against the ATP’s top 10.
After starting the year ranked No. 61 in the world, the 22-year-old Draper is assured of breaking into the top 20 of the ATP rankings for the first time.
The last man to win the US Open title without dropping a set was Neale Fraser in 1960.
ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
