Rome, May 14 (IANS) Carlos Alcaraz continued his rollercoaster ride in Rome as he reached the semifinals of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, overcoming Jack Draper in straight sets here on Wednesday. The Spaniard overcame Draper 6-4, 6-4 at the clay ATP Masters 1000, fighting back from 2-4 to claim the first set on Campo Centrale.
He then let slip an early break lead in the second set, but rallied through to a one-hour, 38-minute quarter-final triumph.
As well as keeping him on track for his second Masters 1000 trophy of the year (after Monte-Carlo), Alcaraz’s win against Draper also ensured he will, on Monday, rise above Alexander Zverev to No. 2 in the ATP Rankings. That will also lock the 22-year-old in as the second seed for the upcoming Roland Garros, where he is the defending champion. As the second seed, Alcaraz is guaranteed to be in the opposite half of the draw to World No. 1 Jannik Sinner at the clay major.
With his Tour-leading 28th win of 2025, Alcaraz advanced to the Rome semi-finals for the first time on his second appearance. His opponent there will be defending champion and second seed Zverev or home favourite Lorenzo Musetti.
Just as he had against Laslo Djere and Karen Khachanov in his previous two matches, Alcaraz produced a performance against Draper that fluctuated dramatically between streaks of shotmaking brilliance and lapses that allowed his opponent to escape from tough positions. Yet Alcaraz still found the consistency required to hold off the fifth-seeded Briton.
The third-seeded Spaniard finished the match having hit 24 winners to Draper’s eight, a tally which more than made up for his 29 unforced errors to his opponent’s 18. Alcaraz was also clinical with his chances on return, converting all four break points he earned in the match, according to Infosys ATP Stats. After defeating Draper in the pair’s maiden tour-level clash on clay, Alcaraz leads the lefty 4-2 in their ATP head-to-head series.
Draper would have risen above Taylor Fritz to No. 4 in the ATP Live Rankings by beating Alcaraz on Wednesday. Despite his defeat, he can reflect on another impressive step forward in his career on clay. He had won just nine tour-level matches on the surface before 2025 but has now doubled that tally after reaching the second round in Monte-Carlo, the final in Madrid, and the quarterfinals in Rome.
–IANS
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