WHAT HAPPENED: Twenty-year-old Jack Draper has broken new ground in his breakout 2022 season. Playing in his first US Open and second Grand Slam main draw, the rising British star upset sixth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime by a tidy 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 scoreline to reach the third round at a major for the first time.
Draper, a 6-foot-4 lefty, set the tone with an instant break in Louis Armstrong Stadium, and made the Canadian work hard just to hold serve early in the set. But after snapping into gear with two love holds, Auger-Aliassime earned his only three break points of the night as Draper served out the first set.
The No. 6 seed would not get as close as deuce on return for the rest of the contest, with Draper taking the final two sets courtest of mid-frame breaks. The crucial third-set break came in a three-deuce fifth game, the joint-longest game of the match alongside Draper's final service game in the opener.
"Obviously Felix is an incredibly tough opponent. That's why he's at the top of the game,” Draper said after the victory. “I played a really good match today, a special occasion out here."
Draper, who's dropped serve just once in his two US Open matches, landed just half of his first serves (44/88) against Auger-Aliassime, but won a stellar 84% (37/44) of points when he did make his first delivery. He finished a clean performance with 29 winners to just 17 unforced errors; Auger-Aliassime hit 27 winners but paid for his 41 unforced errors in the two-hour, 28-minute contest.
WHAT IT MEANS: After a straight-sets win against Emil Ruusuvuori in his US Open debut, Draper stepped up a level to dismiss the sixth seed and returning semifinalist.
The victory is Draper's second against a Top 10 opponent; he defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas in the second round of Montreal earlier this month en route to his first ATP Masters 1000 quarterfinal.
He was one of four British men in the second round, with Andy Murray also victorious on Wednesday. Seventh seed Cameron Norrie and 20th seed Daniel Evans will seek to join them in Round 3 with second-round wins on Thursday.
MATCH POINT: Jack Draper has made the biggest ranking jump among those in the Top 100 this season, climbing 206 spots from No. 259 last year to a career-high No. 53 entering New York. He is projected to enter the Top 50 after his US Open run.
