raper has played on most of the biggest arenas in the world, but is yet to tick off Arthur Ashe Stadium, this sport’s biggest one.
Instead, the stars had to decamp to the smaller Louis Armstrong Stadium to watch Draper on Monday, a group of pilgrims that included the iconic Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue magazine since before Draper was born. She took pride of place in his coaching box next to brother and agent Ben and was rewarded for slumming it with one of the most dominant performances of Draper’s career.
Embracing the big moments and the limelight is not Draper’s natural style. He is a little shy and awkward, a gentle, broad-shouldered giant at 6ft 4in who would rather let his tennis – which is anything but gentle – do the talking. He only recently started adding full captions to his Instagram posts, the 21st century of “strong and silent” type.
His efforts to hide from the spotlight will soon be in vain though. Victory over Tomas Machac for the loss of just six games booked his place in a first-ever grand slam quarter-final at the age of 22, the third-youngest British man ever after Tim Henman and his great mentor Andy Murray, who was also the last male player from these shores to reach the last eight in New York back in 2016. “A real statement to the locker room,” Henman called it.
Murray continued to occupy the stage for the next seven years but this, the first major since his retirement in Paris last month, was an opportunity for Draper to step up from understudy to leading man. It is a notional narrative of course, but there is a pleasant symmetry to Murray’s Davis Cup team-mate and chief passenger (see the video of Draper drinking his way down the M6 after victory over France with an unimpressed Murray chauffeuring) reaching a career high at this point in time.
“Andy is a legend,” Draper said after reaching the quarter-finals. “If I have half the career that he’s had, then I’ll be a happy man.”
And he may even find himself leaning on Murray for a few words of wisdom before facing Alex de Minaur on Wednesday. The Scot is supposed to be on holiday with his family – deliberately booked by wife Kim to clash with the US Open – but it has not stopped him chipping in on social media, to comment on big points or complain about scheduling.
