Jack Draper stormed past Matteo Arnaldi in the quarterfinals of Madrid on Thursday, 6-0, 6-4, to reach the first clay-court semifinal of his career—and at a Masters 1000 clay-court event, no less.
But that’s not all he achieved with the win.
The 23-year-old also secured his Top 5 debut on the ATP rankings—he’ll rise from No. 6 to No. 5 when the new rankings come out on Monday, after Madrid, no matter how he does the rest of the week.
And with that, he’ll become just the second left-handed player to be ranked in the ATP Top 5 this century, after Rafael Nadal, who spent 209 career weeks at No. 1 during his illustrious career.
The last time a left-handed player other than Nadal or Draper was in the ATP Top 5 was during the 1999 Australian Open—the weeks of January 18th and 25th, 1999—when Marcelo Rios was No. 2.
LEFT-HANDED PLAYERS IN THE ATP TOP 10 THIS CENTURY:
- Marcelo Rios [ranked as high as No. 7 in 2000]
- Mariano Puerta [career-high No. 9 in 2005]
- Rafael Nadal [career-high No. 1 in 2008]
- Fernando Verdasco [career-high No. 7 in 2009]
- Jurgen Melzer [career-high No. 8 in 2011]
- Denis Shapovalov [career-high No. 10 in 2020]
- Cameron Norrie [career-high No. 8 in 2022]
- Jack Draper [career-high No. 5 in 2025]
