Jack Draper has played on most of the biggest arenas in the world, but is yet to tick off Arthur Ashe Stadium, this sport’s biggest one.
Instead, the stars had to decamp to the smaller Louis Armstrong Stadium to watch Draper on Monday, a group of pilgrims that included the iconic Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue magazine since before Draper was born. She took pride of place in his coaching box next to brother and agent Ben and was rewarded for slumming it with one of the most dominant performances of Draper’s career.
Embracing the big moments and the limelight is not Draper’s natural style. He is a little shy and awkward, a gentle, broad-shouldered giant at 6ft 4in who would rather let his tennis – which is anything but gentle – do the talking. He only recently started adding full captions to his Instagram posts, the 21st century of “strong and silent” type.
His efforts to hide from the spotlight will soon be in vain though. Victory over Tomas Machac for the loss of just six games booked his place in a first-ever grand slam quarter-final at the age of 22, the third-youngest British man ever after Tim Henman and his great mentor Andy Murray, who was also the last male player from these shores to reach the last eight in New York back in 2016. “A real statement to the locker room,” Henman called it.
Murray continued to occupy the stage for the next seven years but this, the first major since his retirement in Paris last month, was an opportunity for Draper to step up from understudy to leading man. It is a notional narrative of course, but there is a pleasant symmetry to Murray’s Davis Cup team-mate and chief passenger (see the video of Draper drinking his way down the M6 after victory over France with an unimpressed Murray chauffeuring) reaching a career high at this point in time.
“Andy is a legend,” Draper said after reaching the quarter-finals. “If I have half the career that he’s had, then I’ll be a happy man.”
And he may even find himself leaning on Murray for a few words of wisdom before facing Alex de Minaur on Wednesday. The Scot is supposed to be on holiday with his family – deliberately booked by wife Kim to clash with the US Open – but it has not stopped him chipping in on social media, to comment on big points or complain about scheduling.
“I know if I have any questions or if I’m feeling something, then he’ll be the first person I text. I know that he’d be there for me if I need him,” Draper added.
The biggest feature of Draper’s recent advancement has been the calmness with which he has handled himself, a clear focus of recent progress. In the biggest matches of his life to date, Draper has been beset by cramps that, by his own admission, have been as much about mental tension as physical fatigue; it was only last January against Rafael Nadal that Draper was hit by spasms after just two sets of tennis, admitting he was “a work in progress” at the highest level.
He is clearly still not the finished article: the regular reminders from his long-time coach James Trotman were not to worry when he hit double-faults, to take his time in big moments and to breathe properly when the pressure was on.
“So impressive on that front, maybe more than the playing part, the mental part has been just outstanding,” Martina Navratilova, who with 49 grand slam titles across singles and doubles knows a bit about mental pressure, told Sky Sports.
“That’s how he’s been playing the whole tournament. Really, every match has been the same: he knows what his gameplan is, what his strengths are, and he has never looked even one iota nervous.”
It helps that he has not been hugely pushed en route to the last eight. No 39 Machac was his highest-ranked opponent after Zhang Zhizhen, who retired injured from during first-round defeat to Draper.
“We know that the challenges will get harder and harder, but again, you can only beat the opposition in front of you, and Machac is a quality player,” said Tim Henman, who from his courtside reporting position could not help offering the odd bit of realtime advice to Draper either.
“I think we should not forget that match has beaten Draper on three occasions before, and so there was a little bit of scar tissue for Jack.”
If there was it barely showed. Draper has only had his serve broken once this tournament, saving 20 out of 21 break points, serving powerfully but also intelligently in those pressure moments. Against the underpowered De Minaur, by necessity one of the tour’s best returners, he will need all of that gumption and more.
“I think I’m finding first serves when I need to find them. I’ve saved a lot of break points with good serves and good plays,” Draper said.
“I think I still have got a lot of work to go on my serve as well. I think my serve is a weapon.
“Whenever I look at the stats, I think I see that my first serve when it goes in is a really high percentage, but I still feel like I’m serving not amazingly well.
“So it’s really positive to know that I’m holding serve a lot, and I still feel like there’s room for improvement.”
No one doubts that last statement. “He will definitely be in the top 10,” Machac reflected after defeat at his hands.
