Even with the 2024 season into its final weeks, Jack Draper continues to break new ground.
The Briton held his nerve to edge Lorenzo Musetti 6-2, 6-4 on Saturday afternoon and reach the championship match at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna. In doing so, he advanced to his maiden ATP 500 final and simultaneously ensured he will on Monday rise into the Top 15 of the PIF ATP Rankings for the first time.
Draper battled through a topsy-turvy second set, in which he let slip a 4-2 lead and had to withstand a clear rise in Musetti’s level, before completing a one-hour, 49-minute victory.
“I thought the first set was a really high level from my side,” said Draper. “Definitely Lorenzo is a really tough competitor. I’ve known him since I was really young and playing against him is always so difficult. He’s had an incredible season.
“The second set was really up and down. There were some long points and definitely some nerves and difficult moments, but I’m really proud of the way I kept on fighting and kept on going. In the end I got it done.”
The 22-year-old Draper was one of three players that age or younger to advance to an ATP 500 final on Saturday: In Basel, where all four semi-finalists were under 23, the 22-year-old Ben Shelton beat 20-year old Arthur Fils before Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard beat fellow 21-year-old Holger Rune.
Draper converted five of 10 break points he earned to down Musetti, according to Infosys ATP Stats. Even when he was pegged back by the Italian when serving at 4-2 in the second set, he kept his cool to deliver an emphatic response by breaking in the very next game.
After extending his Lexus ATP Head2Head lead against Musetti to 3-0, Draper secured his spot in the biggest title match of his career. The 22-year-old has reached three ATP 250 finals in the past 12 months: in Sofia at the end of 2023 (l. to Mannarino), and in Adelaide (l. to Lehecka) and Stuttgart (d. Berrettini) earlier this year.
“It’s my biggest final yet. I’ve been in 250 finals,” said Draper, who also reached his first major semi-final at September’s US Open. “I’d say a Grand Slam semi-final is probably a bigger match, but at the same time to be in the final at a 500 after all the work I’ve put in this year and the season I’ve had, I’m incredibly grateful and really happy to be in this situation. Roll on tomorrow.”
Draper will take on Karen Khachanov for the trophy in Vienna knowing he has also guaranteed he will rise three spots to a career-high No. 15 in this coming Monday’s edition of the PIF ATP Rankings.
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Khachanov upset second seed Alex de Minaur 6-2, 6-4 to continue his bid for back-to-back titles after his Almaty triumph last week. Now on an eight-match winning streak on indoor hard courts, he is into his first ATP 500 final and his biggest tour-level final since the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
In his second Top 10 win of the season (d. Medvedev in Monte-Carlo), Khachanov cruised to a 6-2, 5-2 lead without facing a break point. De Minaur managed to close to 5-4, but he could not stop the 28-year-old from serving out the match on his second opportunity.
Into his 10th tour-level final (7-2), Khachanov will bid to add to his Doha and Almaty titles this year. If he can improve upon his 2-1 Lexus ATP Head2Head record against Draper, he will match his three-trophy haul from 2018, a personal best.
De Minaur’s defeat is a blow in the Aussie’s bid to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time. He could have moved into seventh place in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin with the Vienna title, but instead will enter the Rolex Paris Masters in ninth, 165 points behind Andrey Rublev for the all-important eighth spot.
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