Jack Draper secures important Wimbledon seeding by reaching Queen's semi-finals

Jack Draper guaranteed himself a top-four seeding at Wimbledon after reaching the semi-finals at Queen’s Club for the first time. The British No.1battled past American Brandon Nakashima 6-4 5-7 6-4 on the Andy Murray Arena.

Draper is now two wins away from becoming only the second home men’s singles winner in the Open era – after the man the court is named in honour of. But more importantly, Draper has moved above Novak Djokovic and Taylor Fritz in the world rankings to a career-high of four.

That means at Wimbledon, the 23-year-old can avoid Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz,the world No.1 and No.2 respectively, until the semi-finals.

“I’ve got to get to the semis first,” he smiled. “But last year I went there ranked 40th and now I’m fourth. To get to that position is an incredible feeling. It is testament to the work me and my team have done and I’m proud of that.”

In a hard-fought first set Draper saved six break points as Nakashima tried to haul back an early break. Draper then made hard work of taking the opener, finally getting the job done on his sixth set point.

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In the second set Nakashima eventually converted one of his chances when Draper sent a tired-looking forehand long to take the match the distance. At 3-3 in the decider Draper brought up two breaks points and thought he had made the first with a backhand out wide, but the crowd’s cheers had drowned out the automatic line call.

However, he thudded the second out of Nakashima’s reach, saved two break points as he served for the match and wrapped up another hard-fought win in two hours and 22 minutes.

“It means the world to me, the support I’ve received this week has been amazing,” added Draper after becoming Britain’s first semi-finalist since Cameron Norrie in 2021. “At times I’ve not played great tennis but I’ve tried to believe in myself.”

In the semi-finals Draper will face Czech world number 30 Jiri Lehecka, who ended Jacob Fearnley’s promising debut run. The British No.2 looked heavy-legged in an error-strewn 7-5 6-2 defeat.

Fearnley was scheduled to play the opening match despite a gruelling three-setter against Corentin Moutet the day before, followed by a win in the doubles – alongside Norrie – over Lehecka and Taylor Fritz.

“Obviously if I’d known I was going to be put on first the day after playing a long match in 32 degrees and playing another doubles match late at night, then I probably wouldn’t have played doubles,” he said “It’s just difficult to predict those things sometimes. It’s just about being smart about it, really.”