Important events
Preamble
Two months ago, during Andy Murray’s tearful farewell to Wimbledon and Jack Draper’s first Grand Slam as British No. 1, Draper was anointed by the scriptwriters as Murray’s ready-made successor, someone who could take over immediately and take that hope home with him for the fortnight. He had made a remarkable run to Wimbledon, beating Carlos Alcaraz at Queen’s and winning his first ATP Tour title in Stuttgart, but he could not adapt to the heightened expectations and the 22-year-old was knocked out in the second round by British No. 2 Cameron Norrie, who then lost in the next round.
But here Draper is, just one Grand Slam later, playing in his first major quarterfinal, eight years after Murray last appeared at this stage of the US Open. And he hasn’t dropped a set to get this far. And he’s in the quarter of a draw that Alcaraz lost early on. Make no mistake, this is a great opportunity to reach the semifinals for Draper, the left-handed player who is actually right-handed (well, Rafa Nadal has made a pretty good career of it).
But this is also a huge opportunity for Alex de Minaur, who is also enjoying the best season of his life. The 25-year-old world number 10 is playing in his third consecutive slam quarter-final (he is the first Australian to achieve the feat since Lleyton Hewitt 20 years ago) and the fourth of his career, but crucially for him this is the first time he has faced a lower-ranked opponent. He lost to eventual champion Dominic Thiem at the 2020 US Open, eventual runner-up Alexander Zverev at this year’s French Open and then had to withdraw from his last-eight match with Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon due to a hip injury that also kept him out of the Olympics. He has exceeded his own expectations by reaching another quarter-final so quickly in his recovery.
As for the head-to-head matches, De Minaur leads 3-0, including the last two matches on hardcourt, but Draper is a different player now, both physically and mentally, and De Minaur knows that. It will be very interesting to see how this match ends.
The match starts: around 2pm New York time/7pm BST.
Before we do that, we still have the not so unimportant thing: Karolina Muchova vs Beatriz Haddad Maia in the women’s quarterfinals. Muchova, the 2023 French Open runner-up, reached the semifinals in New York last year but has had a tough time since then. She missed 10 months with a wrist injury, so the Czech is unseeded this time around. Haddad Maia is the first Brazilian woman to play in the US Open quarterfinals since Maria Bueno in 1968. They will face Arthur Ashe in about five minutes.