Jack Draper, the British tennis player, marked a career high on Thursday at the Queen's Club Championships with his biggest win over top-seeded and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in straight sets to move into the quarterfinals. With his explosive and powerful left-handed serve, Draper triumphed 7-6 by an affinity of 3, 6-3 over Alcaraz.
Both players went into the contest on fairly convincing streaks, with Alcaraz having captured eight in a row since his success at the French Open and Draper extending his streak to seven straight following last week's victory in his first ATP Tour final in Stuttgart.
Draper thrilled the home crowd by defending absolutely magnificently throughout, conceding not a single service game all match. The 31st-ranked player in the ATP Rankings capitalized on his wide serves to both sides of the court, winning an astonishing 76 percent of his service points, according to Infosys ATP Stats, and completed the task at hand after one hour and 39 minutes.
It was a scrappy first set, as neither player was ever able to break the other's serve. Draper made strong headway up front in the tiebreak and further benefited from an error from Alcaraz to never give away the lead, eventually closing out the set with a well-placed serve.
While Alcaraz did turn up the usual moments of brilliance throughout the match—such as a few truly breathtaking shots during crucial points, including one particular stunning passing shot—a much more fired-up Draper actually gained momentum, unusually for him against Alcaraz. Draper broke Alcaraz to go up 4-2 in the second set, and it turned out to be decisive, since it was the only break throughout the match.
Although Draper faltered on his first three match points while serving at 5-3, he remained composed there a game later. It was his third win against a top 10 opponent and his first since beating Felix Auger-Aliassime at the 2022 US Open.
By stopping Alcaraz's 13-match winning streak on grass, Draper reached No. 28 in the ATP Live Rankings, a career-high ranking. Fifth seed Tommy Paul lies next as his opponent in the last eight. He has gotten the better of him on both occasions this year in ATP head-to-head encounters.
Victory at Queen's Club underlined Draper's ever-growing stature in the tennis world, fully pinpointing the statement to back it up. He had an interesting prospect with Paul, as he continued to keep his form on grass courts.
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