Britain’s Jack Draper surprised two-time BNP Paribas Open champion Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinal on Saturday to reach his maiden Masters 1000 final. The Brit registered a 6-1, 0-6, 6-4 win in one-hour, 44-minutes. With this victory, Draper snapped Alcaraz’s 16-match win streak at the Indian Wells Masters.
After this win, the 23-year-old will enter the PIF ATP top-10 rankings for the first time in his career. The left-hander raced to a 3-0 lead in the opening set before bagging it comfortably by 6-1.
Subsequently, the Spaniard won the second set by 6-0, bageling Draper for the first time in his career. However, the Briton bounced back to take the fourth set by 6-4.
“It was a strange match in all honesty,” said Draper, who is now 2-3 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Alcaraz. “Carlos came out a little flat, I sensed that. I had a chance in the first game of the second, and he came up with an ace…
Draper said he was proud of the way he bounced back in the third set after he was thrashed in the second set.
“What happened to him happened to me, I got tight, I had low energy. Against the top players in the world, they can change their momentum very quickly. I got lost out there for 25 minutes, but in the third, I was really proud of my competitiveness, my attitude and I somehow managed to get over the line.”
Meanwhile, despite dropping 600 PIF ATP Rankings points, Alcaraz will remain as the World No. 3 on Monday.
Draper will take on Holger Rune in the summit clash on Sunday at Court 1.
