Jack Draper is a semi-finalist at the 2025 Mutua Madrid Open. The Englishman defeated Matteo Arnaldi with a convincing 6-0, 6-4. In the blink of an eye the 23-year-old had served the Italian a bagel in the first set. However, the second was a closer affair and Arnaldi managed to hold his serve twice, but after two deuces Draper broke him again and refused to release his prey until the scoreboard read 6-4. In the match for a place in the final he will meet the winner of the clash between Lorenzo Musetti and Gabriel Diallo.

Draper has arrived and he is here to stay. The Briton’s triumph in Indian Wells was no fluke and he is now bidding to double down on it with a second Masters 1000 title. He is yet to drop a single set and has only lost 21 games all tournament. His aggressive tennis is a perfect match for the altitude of Madrid.

With his win over the Italian, Draper has earned himself a place among the top five players in the world, overtaking Novak Djokovic in the rankings. The Englishman is now a member of a very select group; he is just the 16^th left-hander in history to reach the top five in the world ranking and the first to do so since Rafael Nadal. It has been a couple of decades since the Mallorcan reached that ranking on 9 May 2005. No other left-hander has done it since.

The comparisons with Nadal are becoming commonplace in tennis circles. Draper, though, takes it with a pinch of salt: “I haven’t won 14 French Opens yet. Not yet”, he joked. “As a left-hander, Rafa is someone I used to watch when I was young. I can’t compare myself to him, but I’d like to think that I share some of his attributes, whether it be his attitude on court or I guess the way I hit my forehand. Yes, I guess there are things I could take from him, but I’m still very far from his level on clay”.

Left-handers to have reached such heights on the tour are rare indeed, and this one seems destined to climb even higher. Jack has his sights set on the pinnacle of the rankings. Here is a complete chronological list of left-handers who reached the top five in the world:

1. Orantes, Manuel (23 August 1973)
2. Connors, Jimmy (29 July 1974)
3. Laver, Rod (9 August 1974)
4. Vilas, Guillermo (30 April 1975)
5. Tanner, Roscoe (26 December 1979)
6. McEnroe, John (3 March 1980)
7. Leconte, Henri (22 September 1986)
8. Gomez, Andres (11 June 1990)
9. Forget, Guy (25 March 1991)
10. Ivanisevic, Goran (4 July 1994)
11. Muster, Thomas (12 February 1996)
12. Rusedski, Greg (6 October 1997)
13. Korda, Petr (2 February 1998)
14. Rios, Marcelo (30 March 1998)
15. Nadal, Rafael (9 May 2005)