Draper digs deep to reach Queen’s semis for 1st time, Alcaraz advances

Jack Draper reached the Queen’s Club semi-finals for the first time with a tense 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 win over American Brandon Nakashima on Friday.

Draper survived a gruelling quarter-final clash lasting two hours and 24 minutes in sweltering conditions at the Wimbledon warm-up event in west London.

The 23-year-old had twice lost in the last eight at Queen’s, but now he is just two wins away from joining Andy Murray as only the second British champion at the tournament in the Open area.

Draper will move above Novak Djokovic and Taylor Fritz in the world rankings next week to a career-high of four.

That means at Wimbledon, which starts on June 30, the 23-year-old can avoid defending champion Carlos Alcaraz and world number one Jannik Sinner until the semi-finals.

“Last year I went there ranked 40th and now I’m fourth. To get to that position is an incredible feeling,” Draper said.

“It is testament to the work me and my team have done and I’m proud of that.”

Draper will face Jiri Lehecka in the last four on Saturday after the Czech world number 30 beat beat British number two Jacob Fearnley 7-5, 6-2.

Carlos Alcaraz stretched his winning streak to 16 matches, securing his place in the semi-finals with a commanding performance.

The top seed and reigning Queen’s Club champion overcame a powerful serving display from lucky loser Arthur Rinderknech, clinching a 7-5, 6-4 victory to continue his dominant run.

Zverev and Medvedev move ahead: Home favourite Alexander Zverev shrugged off a mystery illness at Halle on Friday to battle past Italian Fabio Cobolli and progress to the last four of the Wimbledon warm-up.

The German second seed felled Cobolli 6-4, 7-6 (8/6) and will next face Daniil Medvedev, after the Russian third seed beat American Alex Michelsen 6-4, 6-3 in his quarter-final.

In a rematch of a third-round meeting at Roland Garros three weeks ago, Zverev again produced an impressive serving performance.

He crucially rallied from 0-40 down in the second and fourth games of first set.

Vondrusova beats Jabeur: Marketa Vondrusova breezed past Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur 6-4, 6-1 on Friday to reach the semi-finals of the WTA tournament in Berlin in a repeat of their 2023 Wimbledon final which the Czech won.

Agencies