Jack Draper insisted he will have no fear in his first Grand Slam semi-final as he declared: “I knew that my time would come.”
The British No.1 reached the last four at the US Open without dropping a set by blowing away world No.10 Alex de Minaur in straight sets.
The two Brits to reach this stage in New York – Andy Murray in 2012 and Emma Raducanu in 2021 – went on to win the title.
And Draper, 22, declared: “This is not kind of like an overnight thing for me. I’ve believed for a long time that I’ve been putting in the work and doing the right things, and I knew that my time would come.
“I didn’t know when it would be, but hopefully from here I can do a lot of amazing things. I’m very proud of myself.
“I don’t feel kind of overawed by the situations I’ve been in. It’s not getting to me in any sort of way. In my quarter-final, honestly, there weren’t any nerves.
“I think it helps the fact that I’ve been in a lot of kind of low points already in my career where I’ve had injuries, I’ve had setbacks, I’ve had times when I’ve maybe thought to stop or, yeah, am I cut out for this sport, am I really good enough and all these sort of stuff.
Those are hard moments. This is kind of not a hard moment compared to that. This is a privilege, and this is an honour to be in this position. This is why I work so hard, so I’ve got to just keep it going in my stride. I’m not afraid of being in these positions. I want to keep on doing this, and this is why I play.”
While De Minaur was handicapped by a hip injury, Draper needed his right thigh strapped at the start of the second set.
“I felt something on set point in the first set,” he said. “I was a little bit worried about it at the time but then I played two sets on it.I was happy it didn’t turn into a problem.”
Asked if Draper could now go on and reach the final, De Minaur said: “We’ve seen in this tournament that anything is possible. He has got a chance. He has got big weapons that can hurt anyone.”
