ADELAIDE: Britain’s Jack Draper fired a warning to Rafael Nadal by storming past Karen Khachanov and into the Adelaide International semi-finals on Thursday.

The promising 21-year-old faces defending champion Nadal in the first round of the Australian Open next week and showed he was in fine touch with a 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) victory over Russia’s Khachanov.

It was a measure of revenge for Draper after losing to his third-seeded opponent last week.

Draper lifted his ranking from 262 to 40 in a breakthrough 2022 and his Adelaide semi-final is his third in the past six months.

“It’ll be amazing to play on court with him, he’s a great champion,” Draper said of 22-time Grand Slam winner Nadal. Draper added that he believed he could achieve “great things” but there was “a mountain of work to do”.

Draper will take on South Korea’s Kwon Soon-woo for a place in the final after the world number 84 dominated Sweden’s Mikael Ymer 6-1, 6-2 in under an hour.

Roberto Bautista Agut also moved into the final four with a straightforward 6-3, 6-2 win over fellow Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.

His reward is a clash with Thanasi Kokkinakis after the Australian battled past Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 6-1.

In the women’s draw, Daria Kasatkina claimed her second straight win over a former Grand Slam champion to reach the last four.

Kasatkina defeated two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), a day after sweeping past former Roland Garros winner Barbora Krejcikova.It set up a meeting with Spain’s Paula Badosa after the world number 11 beat Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia 7-6 (7-5), 7-5.

Russian sixth seed Veronika Kudermetova came from a set down to topple American Danielle Collins 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 and will next face either Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic or French Caroline Garcia.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2023