Total surprise: Carlos Alcaraz falls to Jack Draper in Indian Wells semis

The number 13 of the world ranking, Jack Draper, frustrated the title defense of Carlos Alcaraz in Indian Wells 2025. The player from Murcia was more erratic than usual and weak from his serve, something that the left-hander took advantage of to win the match 6-1, 0-6, 6-2. Holger Rune will be his opponent in the final of the tournament.

Carlos Alcaraz came to this semifinal match against Jack Draper full of confidence. The former world number 1 had no problems in any match of the previous rounds, being Cerúndolo in the quarterfinals the opponent that bothered him the most.

In the first round he defeated the French Quentin Halys without major difficulties. The next would be Denis Shapovalov, who on paper looked like he could complicate things, but in the end he was largely overcome by the Spaniard. The same could be said of his duel against Grigor Dimitrov in the eighth round, whom Alcaraz took out of the court in just over an hour.

In the quarterfinals, Francisco Cerúndolo was Alcaraz's opponent but, like the previous ones, he would lose in straight sets, although in this case the Roland Garros champion took the match by 6-3 and 7-6.

The case of Jack Draper is noteworthy: in the same tournament he defeated the young promise Joao Fonseca in his debut. Then he became the executioner of the Americans, defeating Jenson Brooksby, No. 4 Taylor Fritz and No. 13 Ben Shelton. The young Briton seems to have achieved something that is key to reach the tennis elite: consistency and continuity.

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First Set

Surprisingly, Jack Draper took the initiative at the start of the match, very aggressive from the serve and from the rest, breaking the Spaniard's first game on serve.

At 0-3 Alcaraz responded with his serve and for a moment it seemed that after a slow start, the former number 1 had arrived.

None of that was to happen, and that service game that Alcaraz would win would be the only one in an entire set that would end in the blink of an eye in favor of the British 6-1;

Draper was a true steamroller with his serve, winning 85% of the points played with his first serve. On Alcaraz's side, he hit 38% of his first serves, which allowed the Briton to take complete control of the set.

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Second Set

After Alcaraz saved two break points in the beginning, Draper had a small drop in his performance in his first service game of the second set, where he reached 0-40. Finally the break came for Alcaraz thanks to a double fault of his rival;

That was the turning point of the set, from then on the Murcian handled things at will. It was a resounding change in which Alcaraz went from having many errors to dominate the points and fill up with winning shots.

On Draper's side, on the contrary, he looked unknown compared to the version that won the opening set. Erratic, ineffective and with many problems serving, falling to 38% of points won with the first serve; In an unusual turn of events, Alcaraz took the second set with a devastating 6-0 win.

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Third Set

The number 13 quickly turned the page and managed to break the Spaniard right from the start, so Draper took a 3-1 lead and once again all eyes were on Alcaraz.

His serve, which had been a great ally throughout the tournament, was far from shining today, so recovering would mean even more work. Draper saw this weak point in the Spaniard's game and took note, attacking from the return even against Alcaraz's first serve.

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While Carlitos added errors, the left-hander was a wall that returned everything. Little is said about the physical capacity of the Briton, who in the third set did not stop running and forcing Alcaraz to play the same point several times.

With a lot of attitude, Draper got a new break that put him 5-2 up, serving to win the match. The pressure of closing against an opponent like Alcaraz was too much and the British player could not hold his serve. The former No. 1 quickly secured his service game and put all the pressure on the left-hander. But on his second chance he pulled out a brutal serve and sealed the set 6-4.

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