Draper to play Alcaraz after another five-set epic

Britain's Jack Draper fought done his 3rd successive five-setter astatine the Australian Open to tee up a blockbuster gathering with Spanish 3rd effect Carlos Alcaraz successful the 4th round.

Draper, seeded 15th, won 6-4 2-6 5-7 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (10-8) against location anticipation Aleksandar Vukic successful different late-night thriller.

The British fig 1 had already quelled a partisan Australian assemblage by beating Thanasi Kokkinakis successful an epic connected Wednesday - and showed much of his monster mentality 2 days later.

Draper, 23, led by a interruption successful the decider earlier Vukic - who belied his ranking of 86th successful the satellite - refused to wilt and forced a lucifer tie-break.

A throaty roar from Draper signalled his delight – and alleviation – astatine coming done successful astir 4 hours.

"It was an unbelievable pugnacious match, some of america played a batch of sets already truthful I knew it would beryllium hard. It was a batch of ebbs and flows," said the 2024 US Open semi-finalist.

"I thought it was done and helium came backmost from the dead. It was a large conflict and 2 large competitors going astatine it. That's what athletics is each about."

Draper, who is the lone Briton near successful the men's singles, volition look to extremity 21-year-old Alcaraz's bid to implicit a vocation Grand Slam connected Sunday.

Draper's puerility rival Jacob Fearnley, who has enjoyed a meteoric emergence since turning nonrecreational successful April, was beaten by German 2nd effect Alexander Zverev earlier connected Friday.

Emma Raducanu is the lone Briton near successful the women's singles and plays 2nd effect Iga Swiatek connected Saturday astatine 00:30 GMT.

There volition beryllium unrecorded commentary of that lucifer connected BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra.

Playing back-to-back five-setters for the archetypal clip successful his vocation - and winning them some against Argentina's Mariano Navone and Kokkinakis - provided a heavy consciousness of restitution for Draper.

There was a clip not excessively agelong agone erstwhile the left-handed Englishman lamented being known arsenic "the feline who is injured a lot".

The aboriginal portion of his vocation was challenging due to the fact that of regular carnal issues and it was nary coincidence his ascension up the ATP rankings past twelvemonth came arsenic a effect of spending much clip connected court.

Draper's fullest play truthful acold led to a archetypal ATP title, taking implicit arsenic British fig 1 and the tally to the US Open semi-finals which alerted him to a wider audience.

A hep wounded which disrupted his off-season not lone came astatine an unfortunate time, it allowed the radical who questioned his durability to resurface.

When the Briton clinched the archetypal acceptable against Vukov successful 30 minutes, it seemed similar a much straightforward nighttime ahead.

Vukic, a late-bloomer playing successful the 3rd circular of a large for the archetypal time, caused harm with his forehand but did not person the consistency to crook an aboriginal interruption into a lead.

Draper fought backmost with the assistance of immoderate explosive hitting, including a moving forehand victor astir the nett station which drew gasps from the crowd.

However, Draper's level plummeted successful the 2nd and 3rd sets arsenic Vukic turned the lucifer around.

Smashing a racquet connected the court, and having a popular astatine the booing fans, allowed a tense Draper to fto disconnected immoderate steam earlier the fourth.

A choky acceptable produced much shots from some men worthy of the lucifer highlights reel, including a precise inside-out forehand crossed the tribunal and a backhand volley from Vukic which saved 2 acceptable points.

Draper continued to determination guardant successful the tribunal much astatine the commencement of the decider, helping him pinch an aboriginal interruption - but Vukic fed disconnected the assemblage vigor to retrieve again.

The first-to-10 lucifer tie-break was a fitting extremity to settee the contention and Draper, having led 3-0 and trailed 6-5, placed an unreturned archetypal service down the mediate connected his 2nd lucifer point.