Prior to this year, Jack Draper hadn’t played beyond the Round of 16 at Indian Wells. Now the 23-year-old from Great Britain is in the final.
His stunning 6-1, 0-6, 6-4 win over back-to-back defending champion Carlos Alcaraz came just three days after a reporter asked Alcaraz if he felt unbeatable at the BNP Paribas Open. And two days after Alcaraz playfully asked if he should buy a house here, where he’s come to feel so at home.
Needless to say, Draper’s win over Alcaraz, in front of a nearly full 16,100-seat Stadium 1 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, was at least a bit shocking.
The win is surely the biggest of Draper’s career. He will now play in his first Masters 1000 final on Sunday against Denmark’s Holger Rune, who beat Daniil Medvedev in straight sets.
“Relief, joy, you know, just a huge feeling of big emotion,” Draper said. “I have been through a lot in my few years with playing and especially the last ones with some injuries, and a lot of hard work to sort of always try and get back to a decent level.”
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[More: Holger Rune solves Daniil Medvedev to reach BNP Paribas Open final]
Draper’s win snaps Alcaraz’s 16-match win streak at Indian Wells, dating back to 2023, and denies Alcaraz of becoming just the third player — after Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer — of winning this event three consecutive times.
Neither player had lost a set this year in four previous matches at Indian Wells.
“I’m not as upset about not getting the third one in a row,” Alcaraz said. “I’m upset about myself, about the way that I approached the match, the way that I felt during the whole day, that I couldn’t calm down myself.”
Draper ran through a Murderer’s Row of players to reach the semifinals. He beat Brazilian rising star João Fonseca in his first match, before beating American Jenson Brooksby next. He then beat two of the top three Americans, third-seeded Taylor Fritz and 11th-seeded Ben Shelton.
On Saturday, Draper’s serve gave Alcaraz trouble in the opening set. A lefty, Draper’s slider serve, which cuts across the court like a slice, awarded him three aces in a dominant opening set.
The opening set lasted just 23 minutes.
Alcaraz said that the day did not start off well for him. He said that he felt nerves that he had not felt in a while, and that he fixated too much on Draper’s game rather than his own.
“I didn’t practice well,” Alcaraz said. “I didn’t feel myself well on court. Even in the warming up on court, I was missing a lot. I didn’t feel my shots.
He added, “I didn’t approach the match in the best way that I could. So, I was nervous during the whole day, in the practice before the match, and I think that affected the match.”
Still, Alcaraz, the second seed in the draw, found his way back into the match with a resurgent second set, fist pumping after big points as the crowd roared in his favor.
“This is what Alcaraz does,” Tennis Channel commentator Jim Courier said. “He whips the crowd up like a wave and then rides it.”
But in the third set, Draper, the 13th seed in the draw, secured a huge point on a review in the third game. That helped him take the early break. He then went up another break before Alcaraz broke back to make the 10th game very interesting.
Draper was able to hold serve in that game, with Alcaraz making a few unforced errors, to hold on to the win.
Alcaraz had nine break point opportunities in the match, but converted on just four of them. On the other side, Draper converted on four of the five break point opportunities he had.
It felt like a coming-of-age story for Draper, unfolding in real time.
“I felt like I put so much energy into just trying to get myself back to mentally, going about things the right way,” Draper said. “It’s always tough in tennis matches when you have a big momentum shift against you to then come back and find a way to sort of get yourself back to operating on a good standard again.”
With the win, Draper will move into the top 10 of the ATP rankings for the first time Monday.
Draper and Rune have faced each other only once before as pros. It was last year in Cincinnati, and Rune won. But if Draper plays the way he did Saturday, it should be anyone’s match.
“I’m looking forward to tomorrow already,” Draper said. “I’ll make sure I look after my recovery, not thinking about too much of — that’s the thing with tennis. You’ve got to get over wins like today, and all my focus and energy is on making sure that I do all the right things to give myself the best chance to win the tournament tomorrow.”
[This story has been updated to add new information.]
