Can British No 1 Jack Draper reach the US Open final? Watch his US Open semi-final against world No 1 Jannik Sinner - live on Sky Sports Tennis and Sky Sports+ streaming service NOW and the Sky Sports app
Friday 6 September 2024 18:06, UK
British No 1 Jack Draper is "100 per cent" certain he can reach the US Open final as he gears up for the biggest match of his life against Jannik Sinner on Friday at 8pm - live on Sky Sports Tennis.
Draper is two wins away from winning a maiden Grand Slam after cruising into the semi-finals of the US Open without dropping a set.
The 22-year-old has always been a player of huge potential, but even he expressed doubts about whether he could make it to the top.
After an injury-hit 2023 which saw him miss Wimbledon, he has been rewarded with a breakout year with a first ATP Tour title in Stuttgart which changed everything.
"Winning Stuttgart was a huge moment for me," Draper told Sky Sports' Tim Henman. "I played two finals before that and both times I came up short and it was something like I was a good enough player to do it but I just wasn't getting over the line and I don't think whatever level you're playing at - winning five matches and winning a tournament is an incredible achievement.
"When I won that one, it felt strange. There was a massive sigh of relief and it actually made me believe in myself a lot more. It made me a lot more confident in my own skin and really made me believe that by beating the players that I beat, especially to win the tournament, I felt like I belonged a lot more at the really highest level."
Now a tournament winner, Draper suddenly became aware of his fellow players looking at him in a different light.
"A lot of the players know my talent and know my tennis capabilities and probably see me as a dangerous player," he said.
"It's been important for me to show my face on the tour most weeks and show that I'm physically robust. That mentally, I'm all in, and I'm doing all the right things, and that also gains respect from the other players."
Draper admitted he went through a few years of turmoil with the grind of Futures and Challenger events, while expectations of life on the road were not quite what he had hoped for.
After suffering a number of injury setbacks last year, Draper quickly realised he was "extremely privileged" and lucky to be playing on the tour.
"My perspective changed a lot last year when I began to have a more working mentality where I knew that if I wanted to be one of the best players in the world I had to mature early and give everything to my tennis.
"No more going out and no more wasting energy on random things. I had to really lock myself away and really focus on what I really wanted to do."
Draper is now two wins away from emulating Andy Murray's 2012 title and Emma Raducanu's 2021 success in New York.
And the young Briton believes he is "100 per cent" certain of going all the way, saying: "I'm not the kind of person who is happy to get to a certain point. I'm always thinking of the next challenge, which is not always a good thing in life at times.
"I wish I was a bit more appreciative of what I'm doing in life and achieving. As a tennis player you're always hungry for the next thing, you always want something more, and achieve bigger things.
"There's no time to be happy of where I'm at, at the moment. I'm looking forward to Friday."
"You're playing great tennis," said birthday boy, Henman. "I've been so impressed with your performances in these five matches and now it's about doing more of the same. It's about being consumed by the process.
"There will probably be even more distractions ahead of the biggest match of your life on the biggest stage, but if you can continue to keep playing the way you've been playing and hitting the spots on your serve, and go out and embrace it, you've really earned the opportunity.
"Believe that you can do it."
