He’s the fourth British man to make the final four in New York and the first since Andy Murray in 2012.

Draper – whose previous best result at a Grand Slam was a fourth round exit at the US Open only last year – was in incredible form en route to the semis and didn’t drop a set along the way.

After wins over Zhizhen Zhang, Facundo Diaz Acosta, Botic van de Zandschlup, Tomas Mahac and 10^th seed Alex de Minaur, Draper eventually lost out to future champion and world No.1 Jannik Sinner.

What were the biggest factors to Draper’s amazing run? We break down the three key reasons behind his success with the help of LTA Performance Analyst Jani Ko.

Weapon of a serve

Draper is making a name for himself as one of the most effective servers on the ATP Tour – he currently ranks 6^th amongst all players in first serve points won in the last year (78.4%),14^th in service games won (84.4%) and 16^th in aces per match (8.3).

At the US Open, we saw the very best of the young Brits big lefty serve, which was arguably the standout element of his game in the build up to the semi-finals.

He won 78% of points off his first serve throughout the tournament – 6% higher than the tour average at 72%.

Added to that he won an impressive 91% of his service games and was only broken once in his opening four matches.

Draper was able to rely on his serve in the big moments, which was pivotal to his success in reaching the final four without dropping a set. He saved 82% of break points faced during the fortnight, which is 20% higher than the ATP average at Flushing Meadows this year.

His combination of pace and variety on the serve makes it incredibly difficult for players to read – especially given that he’s a left-hander as well. If Draper is able to increase the consistency of that first serve throughout the Davis Cup, he could hold the biggest weapon of any player competing in the Finals in Manchester.

Defending the net

When getting deep into the numbers, we can also see that Draper was particularly strong when defending against other players at the net.

In theory, coming into the net should give you an advantage as an attacking play as it limits the options for your opponent, but Draper found more solutions to breaking down players when they came into volley.

Across all his matches, opponents won 5% less points when coming into the net than the tour average at the US Open – 57% vs 62%.

While this may only feel like a small difference, in tennis, the smallest margins can have a big impact on the scoreboard.

When you consider that this was throughout more matches than the average player at the US Open, and he was winning almost half the points when his opponent was at the net, it’s a significant factor behind his success.

Firing off the forehand

It’s no secret that Draper has an absolute cannon of a forehand and is a huge hitter from the back of the court.

Built in the mould of the modern tennis player, the world No.20 is set up to take the game to any opponent from the baseline – but most impressively last week he was able to win on both short points and in the lengthy exchanges.

In fact, Draper came out on top in 55% of his baseline battles in Flushing Meadows compared to the average of 50% - giving him the slight advantage in the more demanding rallies.

It was the forehand that dealt the most damage as well. On average, Draper was hitting two extra winners off his forehand than his peers throughout the whole tournament. In particular, his forehand on the run seemed to be a big area he’s been working on, so keep an eye out for some highlight-reel winners coming from that left hand side.