Jack Draper seeks arguably the biggest win of his career against three-peat-chasing Carlos Alcaraz in Saturday's Indian Wells semi-final.
The British No. 1 has taken out three Americans en route to the BNP Paribas Open semi-final, and he must raise his game against an opponent whose 16-match winning streak has put him just two victories away from emulating Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic's feat of clinching three consecutive titles in the Californian desert.
Match preview
© Iconsport
Known for battling hard and surviving, Draper has not dropped a set in over a week in California, defeating teenage sensation Joao Fonseca, Jenson Brooksby, 2022 champion Taylor Fritz and hard-hitting Ben Shelton without losing a set.
While the 23-year-old needed to roar from 4-1 down in the opener against Brooksby and 3-0 behind against Shelton in the second, he found a higher level of execution to restore parity and outwit both opponents.
Now 11-2 for the season, Draper is featuring at this stage for the first time in his career, having never progressed to the semi-final of a Masters event, and it will be fascinating to observe the Brit's performance against Alcaraz.
Having been forced to retire in their Australian Open fourth-round contest, a healthy 13th seed aims to oust the three-peat-chasing Spaniard to secure a place in a maiden ATP 1000 title match.
With a top-10 spot guaranteed by advancing to Sunday's decider in California, the 23-year-old will not be short on motivation heading into his fifth match-up with the 17-time ATP champion.
© Imago
Defeating Alcaraz will be an uphill challenge, as Francisco Cerundolo witnessed in Thursday's topsy-turvy quarter-final, where the Spaniard rallied from 4-1 down in the second set to claim a 6-3, 7-6(4) victory.
The contest went on for one hour and 43 minutes, the longest the two-time champion has been on court during his title defence, and another extended affair could ensue against Draper.
Although he was broken just once, Alcaraz needed to stave off eight other break-point chances Cerundolo created in the quarter-final, highlighting the second seed's battling qualities, but also offering Draper some hope for an upset.
Regardless, the 17-time titlist enters the ninth Masters 1000 semi-final of his embryonic career as the favourite in the desert, where he has won 16 matches on the trot and aims for an 18th.
With two more victories, the Spanish sensation, 21, could become the youngest player to claim three consecutive titles at this level, a challenge embraced so far en route to his fourth semi-final on the bounce at the ongoing event.
Undefeated in the Californian desert since Rafael Nadal in the 2022 semis, Alcaraz hopes to avoid a similar outcome for a shot at facing Holger Rune or Daniil Medvedev, whom he defeated for both titles in 2023 and 12 months ago.
Tournament so far
Jack Draper:
First round: Bye
Second round: vs. Joao Fonseca 6-4 6-0
Third round: vs. Jenson Brooksby 7-5 6-4
Round of 16: vs. Taylor Fritz 7-5 6-4
Quarter-final: vs. Ben Shelton 6-4 7-5
Carlos Alcaraz:
First round: Bye
Second round: vs. Quentin Halys 6-4 6-2
Third round: vs. Denis Shapovalov 6-2 6-4
Round of 16: vs. Grigor Dimitrov 6-1 6-1
Quarter-final: vs. Francisco Cerundolo 6-3 7-6[4]
Semi-final:
Head To Head
Australian Open (2025) - Fourth round: Alcaraz 7-5 6-1 ret
Queen's Club (2024) - Round of 16: Draper 7-6(3) 6-3
Indian Wells (2023) - Round of 16: Alcaraz 6-2 2-0 ret
Basel (2022) - Round of 32: Alcaraz 3-6 6-2 7-5
While Alcaraz holds a 3-1 lead in their head-to-head, Draper has strikingly retired in two of said losses, exiting when they faced off 12 months ago in the Californian desert and at this year's Aussie Open.
On the occasions his health has held out, Draper took the Spaniard to three sets in Basel three years back and notched a straight-set win on the lawns of the Queen's Club last year.
However, the Brit must end Alcaraz's run of six wins on the bounce in ATP Tour semi-final encounters, during which the 21-year-old has defeated Jannik Sinner (twice) Medvedev (twice) Felix Auger-Aliassime and Hubert Hurkacz.
The 17-time ATP champion enters Saturday's semi-final contest 6-2 at this stage in Masters events (23-11 overall) and aims for a seventh success at Draper's expense.
The two-time titlist has a mixed 5-5 record in tour-level semi-finals, although three of the Briton's defeats came in his first experience of competing at that level; however, the 23-year-old has won five of the next seven last-four contests, including the recent two against Lorenzo Musetti en route to the title in Vienna five months back and Jiri Lehecka a few weeks ago in Doha, where he was a beaten finalist.
We say: Alcaraz to win in three sets
Draper has looked dialled in since his tournament opener, and it is not surprising that the Briton has made it this far.
The British star is serving well — he has faced four break points against Brooksby, Fritz and Shelton and saved six of the seven Fonseca created in the second round — and has exploited his opportunities on return, punishing Fonseca five times from eight generated and breaking three times each against Brooksby, Fritz and Shelton from five, four and five chances, respectively.
While that ideally stands the two-time champion in good stead ahead of facing Alcaraz, the Spaniard knows what it takes to win on these hallowed courts and is a two-time defending champion.
Although we expect Draper to take a set off the three-peat-chasing second seed, the 17-time titlist is backed to advance to Sunday's final for a shot at emulating Federer and Djokovic.
