Jack Draper ends Carlos Alcaraz’s Indian Wells win-streak

Jack Draper stunned Carlos Alcaraz at the Indian Wells Open on Saturday, snapping the defending champion’s 18-match winning streak to make the final of the Californian tournament.

The British No.1 came into his maiden ATP Masters 1000 semi-final as a heavy underdog, priced at $3.25 by tennis bookmakers to upset the second seed.

But Draper expertly navigated what was a tumultuous clash, prevailing 6-1, 0-6, 6-3 to set a mouth-watering match against Holger Rune in the final on Sunday.

In doing so, Draper cracks the world’s top 10 for the first time in his career, moving to world No.8 in the live rankings.

“I feel incredible obviously to beat Carlos in this sort of stage in the tournament on that court,” Draper said after the match.

“You know, I have watched the top players in the world play on that court for many, many years now, and it feels amazing.

“Obviously I’ve got one more to go tomorrow, so all my sort of feelings and emotions on that, but obviously very proud of myself and the achievement.”

The match was marred by a contentious double bounce call by Mohamed Lahyani, with the chair umpire intervening to rule the ball had bounced twice before Draper got to an Alcaraz dropshot at 1-1, 15-15 in the third set.

The Brit sought a video review, which deemed he had reached the ball before a second bounce – however, the umpire opted to replay the point, rather than award it to Draper.

This caused the 23-year-old to protest on-court, which led to a contentious overturning of the decision.

“If Carlos would have said to me that it would have affected his shot, and what have you, then of course I would have replayed the point,” Draper said afterwards.

“Of course, like, it is something I try and do and try and be fair and try and make the right calls.”

Alcaraz explained in his post-match press conference that the incident did not impact his performance, and Draper was simply the better player.

“I mean, I didn’t see if it was one bounce or two bounces at the beginning,” he said.

“So I was just waiting for the review.

“That way it was normal for the review, so all I can say is Jack came, he played much better than me.

“You know, that point didn’t affect, you know, for my play at all.”

Draper takes on Denmark’s Holger Rune in the final of the Indian Wells Open, and is a moderate favourite across the top tennis betting apps.

The No.13 seed returns $1.61 to win at BetOnline, while Rune is priced at $2.30 to claim his second Masters crown.

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