Draper Rips Apart Paul To Move Into Madrid Quarterfinals

Jack Draper, Mutua Madrid Open
Jack Draper (photo: Ion Alcoba Beitia/MMC)

MADRID/WASHINGTON, April 30, 2025 (by Michael Dickens)

World No. 6 Jack Draper of Great Britain, the highest-ranked player left in the men’s draw, made quite a statement as he closed out his fourth-round match at the ATP Masters 1000 Mutua Madrid Open Wednesday afternoon in the Spanish capital city.

The fifth-seeded British No. 1 garnered his fifth consecutive Top 20 win with a business-like performance in his 6-2, 6-2 victory over World No. 12 and 11th seed Tommy Paul of the United States. It was his fourth triumph over the American No. 2 in six head-to-head meetings – and it added to the four Top-20 victories that Draper secured en route to winning his ATP Masters 1000 title in Indian Wells last month.

Draper fought through blustery conditions that permeated Manolo Santana Stadium for his one-hour, eight-minute skirmish against Paul. In the end, though, it didn’t really matter. That’s because the 23-year-old from Sutton, England controlled the tempo of the match, from start to finish, with a heavy groundstroke attack that Paul was never quite able to figure out. Draper closed out his serene 17th victory of the season with a solid forehand winner that capped a demonstrative five-shot rally. Since last October, the Briton has gone 21-2 against players ranked outside the ATP Top 10.

“It was a really good performance,” Draper said during his on-court interview with ATP Media. “The more time I get on this [clay] surface, the more I learn how I’m going to be effective. I think I’m looking for my forehand really well. I’m doing things better and better each match. I moved really well today, which I was happy with.

“These guys are all amazing players. So, to come out and play the way I did against Tommy Paul is a really good thing for me.”

Looking back, Draper won 78 percent of his overall service points against Paul, dropping just three points on his first serve. He struck 20 winners to just 11 unforced errors, compared to just seven winners and 31 unforced errors for the American from New Voorhees, N.J. Draper converted four of six break points while facing zero break points on his serve, and outpointed his opponent 60-35.

Paul, who had hoped to become the fourth American man to advance to the Madrid quarterfinals since the event switched to clay in 2009, was denied in his pursuit of a third Top-10 win on clay. Instead, Draper rose to the challenge and is through to his first Madrid quarterfinal after earning his fifth career win at Caja Mágica.

“I think it’s been a matter of time until I did something good on the clay,” Draper said. “Whenever I practice back home on it – and when I was younger – I always felt good on this surface. Obviously, it’s a bit of a different level now. It feels good to try and keep on proving to myself and everyone else that I’m a good player on this surface – and I can be dangerous.”

Next, Draper, who is the third British man to reach the Madrid quarterfinals after Andy Murray and Kyle Edmund, will oppose unseeded and 44th ranked Matteo Arnaldi of Italy in the last eight on Arantxa Sanchez Stadium Thursday.

Arnaldi earns multiple Top 20 wins in Madrid with Tiafoe triumph

After his upset victory over three-time Madrid champion and current World No. 5 Novak Djokovic in the second round, Matteo Arnaldi earned multiple Top 20 wins in the same event for the first time with his 6-3, 7-5 win over World No. 17 Frances Tiafoe on Arantxa Sanchez Stadium.

The 44th-ranked Arnaldi from Sanremo, Italy, advanced to the quarterfinals in an hour and 38 minutes with aggressive play that was punctuated by hitting 28 winners, saving six of seven break points and outpointing Tiafoe 67-60.

Arnaldi, 24, put away the fourth-round victory on his first match point with a superb backhanded running volley lob that Tiafoe, a native of Hyattsville, Md., was unable to return. Although he missed out on an opportunity to close out the fourth-round win on his serve at 5-4, Arnaldi dealt with the pressure. He made a nice recovery in breaking Tiafoe’s serve to go ahead 6-5, and came out on top after serving out the win.

“I’m very happy to get through this match because Frances is a really good player,” Arnaldi said during his on-court interview with ATP Media. “I lost to him in five [sets] at Wimbledon [last year]. I was two sets up. It’s always tough to play him.

“I’m just happy I played a good match, to be honest. It was very tight, I think I played good in the tight moments. … I’m just happy I came through.”

By winning, Arnaldi became the third Italian men’s quarterfinalist in Madrid, joining Matteo Berrettini in 2021 and Jannik Sinner last year. He’s also through to his seventh career ATP Tour quarterfinal – second at the ATP Masters 1000 level following Montreal last year – and third on clay. Coupled with a win over World No. 8 Andrey Rublev at Indian Wells last month, Arnaldi has now won three straight Top-20 matches.

Arnaldi smiled at the thought during his interview and admitted: “I’m playing good [in Madrid]. Beating Djokovic gave me extra motivation.”

Diallo goes from lucky loser to quarterfinalist

Unheralded Canadian Gabriel Diallo has gone from being a qualifying draw lucky loser to a quarterfinalist in Madrid – all in a week’s time. Wednesday night on Arantxa Sanchez Stadium, the 78th-ranked Diallo saved three match points during a second-set tie-break and went on to beat No. 15 seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, 5-7, 7-6 (7), 6-4, in two hours and 22 minutes.

A turning point during the fourth-round tussle came when Diallo, trailing 3-5 during the tie-break, won a crucial point in which Dimitrov tumbled to the clay and was bloodied.

Although Dimitrov was able to hold serve and set up two match points at 6-4, he failed to convert either of them, and Diallo fought off a third match point at 7-6 before forcing a decider. From there, the momentum shifted in Diallo’s favor starting from when he broke Dimitrov in the opening game to start the third set. Although Dimitrov had been 5-0 in deciding sets this season, he wasn’t able to get over the finish line against the 23-year-old from Montreal.

“I honestly thought I was going home,” Diallo said during his on-court interview afterward with ATP Media. “I thought the margins were so thin, we were both serving really well. … It might be the best serving performance I ever displayed in my whole life. I was lucky I got the point at 4-6 with [his] loose error, and then I was really confident at 5-6  behind my serve. Then I saved another match point. Tennis is up and down, so you just try and manage. Luckily today I managed to flip and win the match.”

Diallo finished with 31 winners – 19 of them from his forehand side, including eight aces – against 25 unforced errors, compared to 39 winners – including 14 aces – and 28 unforced errors by Dimitrov. Each competitor converted one break point and Dimitrov outpointed Diallo 96-95.

“I’ve been told the conditions have suited me really well,” added Diallo, asked whether he could have predicted his good fortune a week ago. “I didn’t put any expectations or barriers [on myself]. I’ve kept an open mind – but to tell you I would make the quarterfinals, I don’t know if I would believe that. I’ve tried to go step by step but it seems to be going faster.”

After defeating No. 50 Zizou Bergs of Belgium the first round in straight sets, Diallo has been pushed to three sets in each of his past three matches, against No. 90 Kamil Majchrzak of Poland, No. 91 Cameron Norrie of Great Britain and Dimitrov. The last two matches have been come-from-behind triumphs. Diallo has improved his main-draw win-loss record to 10-8 and his PIF ATP Live Ranking has shot up 25 spots to No. 53.

Musetti masters de Minaur in another Masters 1000 event

Next, Diallo, who is through to his second ATP Tour quarterfinal after Almaty last year, will face World No. 11 and 10th seed Lorenzo Musetti of Italy, who defeated World No. 7 and sixth seed Alex de Minaur of Australia, 6-4, 6-2, in an hour and 23 minutes. Their round of 16 match didn’t start on Manolo Santana Stadium until 11:07 p.m. local time Wednesday night and ended at 12:30 a.m. Thursday morning.

Musetti notched another win over the Australian No. 1 – his third in four career meetings – following his recent semifinal triumph in Monte-Carlo. Now, he’s through t0 his fourth ATP Masters 1000 quarterfinal and last eight for the fifth consecutive clay-court event (following the final at Umag last year, the Paris Olympics semifinals last July, the Buenos Aires quarterfinals earlier this season and the Monte-Carlo final).

“I’m not surprised [to be in the quarterfinals], I’m surprised with myself,” said Musetti, during his on-court interview with ATP Media. “After Monte-Carlo, something changed in myself, a positive click forward. That’s something I have been waiting for for a long time. I feel more secure on what I have to do on the court. Of course I can lose, but I have the attitude and mentality of a Top 10 right now, so I’m really happy about that.”

The 23-year-old Italian No. 2, who has moved up to World No. 9 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings – the sixth Italian man in the Open Era to break into the ATP Top 10 – made the most of his 15 winners against de Minaur. He converted three of 10 break points, faced no break points on his serve while winning 79 percent of his first-serve points, and outpointed de Minaur 61-45.

Musetti improved to 17-3 on clay since last July. He’s 9-0 versus Australian opposition since the start of the 2023 season.

Around the Caja Mágica

Throughout this year’s Mutua Madrid Open, there have been many sightings of European football stars sitting courtside watching the tennis action. Among them have been: Jose Maria Gimenez, Conor Gallagher and Jan Oblak, all of Atlético Madrid, and former Real Madrid star Toni Kroos.

Wednesday’s Mutua Madrid Open results

Thursday’s Mutua Madrid Open order of play

By the numbers

The record for the biggest gap between quarterfinals at an ATP Masters 1000 event (since the series began in 1990) is 12 years, held by Tommy Haas of Germany, who reached the quarterfinals at Rome in 2002 and the second time in 2014.

The record for the biggest gap between quarterfinals at Madrid is seven years, held by Roger Federer (2012, 2019). If Grigor Dimitrov defeats Gabriel Diallo in their round of 16 match Wednesday night, he would shatter Federer’s Madrid record by three years. Dimitrov first reached the Madrid quarterfinals in 2015.

“Quotable …”

“He played better than me today. He definitely played better than me last year when we played here. In Argentina it was a little bit of funny match. But to be honest, I didn’t play terrible, he just played better than me.”

– Top seed Alexander Zverev of Germany, during his post-match news conference Tuesday, after losing his fourth-round match to No. 20 seed Francisco Cerundolo.

 

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