Draper cruises into Madrid Open semi-finals

Draper, who won his first ATP Masters 1000 title when he triumphed at the Indian Wells Open in March, claimed victory in just one hour and 17 minutes.

In the process, he ended Arnaldi's dream run, with the Italian having dumped out Novak Djokovic en route to the last eight.

It means that come Monday, Draper will overtake Djokovic to move into the top five in the world.

He dropped just 10 points on serve without facing a single break point and will now face Lorenzo Musetti in Friday’s semi-final after the Italian beat Gabriel Diallo in straight sets.

12 - Following his victory over Gabriel Diallo, Lorenzo Musetti has now claimed the outright most ATP Masters 1000 match wins of any player so far in 2025. Breakthrough.#MMOPEN | @MutuaMadridOpen @atptour @ATPMediaInfo pic.twitter.com/cBONrPvvXO

— OptaAce (@OptaAce) May 1, 2025

Speaking to Sky Sports, Draper said: "I feel stronger every time I play. Against these guys I used to feel like I would be the one on the back foot, the one defending, so the next part of my game was getting capable physically to do the things I know I can do and bully these guys.

"You see guys like Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have no fear and so I just want to go after it, I suppose. My forehand is doing a lot of damage and I want to keep it up."

Draper and Musetti will be joined in the semi-finals by Francisco Cerundolo, who notched a 24th win of the year, prevailing 3-6 7-6 6-2 against Jakub Mensik, breaking the Czech's nine-match winning streak at ATP Masters 1000 level.

Cerundolo saved a crucial break point at 5-5 in the second set, sparking a comeback to reach his second semi-final at this level.

Since the start of 2020, this will be the 10th ATP Masters 1000 event where only one semi-finalist is a former Masters champion.

That player has gone on to win the tournament on three of those occasions. With Draper's victory at Indian Wells in March, is he the man in Madrid?

With victory over Mensik, meanwhile, Cerundolo is the first South American to reach Masters semi-finals on multiple surfaces since Juan Martin Del Potro (Miami-Madrid 2009). He faces Casper Ruud for a place in the final.