JACK DRAPER guaranteed himself a top-four seeding at Wimbledon today after reaching the semi-finals at Queen’s Club for the first time.

The British number one battled past American Brandon Nakashima 6-4 5-7 6-4 on the Andy Murray Arena.

Draper is now two wins away from becoming only the second home men’s singles winner in the Open era — after the man the court is named in honour of.

But more importantly, Draper has moved above Novak Djokovic and Taylor Fritz in the world rankings to a career-high of four.

That means at Wimbledon, the 23-year-old can avoid Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, the world numbers one and two respectively, until the semi-finals.

“I’ve got to get to the semis first,” he smiled. “But last year I went there ranked 40th and now I’m fourth. To get to that position is an incredible feeling. It is testament to the work me and my team have done and I’m proud of that.”

In a hard-fought first set Draper saved six break points as Nakashima tried to haul back an early break.

Draper then made hard work of taking the opener, finally getting the job done on his sixth set point.

In the second set Nakashima eventually converted one of his chances when Draper sent a tired-looking forehand long to take the match the distance.

At 3-3 in the decider Draper brought up two breaks points and thought he had made the first with a backhand out wide, but the crowd’s cheers had drowned out the automatic line call.

However, he thudded the second out of Nakashima’s reach, saved two break points as he served for the match and wrapped up another hard-fought win in two hours and 22 minutes.

“It means the world to me, the support I’ve received this week has been amazing,” added Draper after becoming Britain’s first semi-finalist since Cameron Norrie in 2021.

In the semi-finals Draper will face Czech world number 30 Jiri Lehecka, who ended Jacob Fearnley’s promising debut run.