Defending champion De Minaur outlasts ill Draper, into Mexican Open final

Australian Alex De Minaur, the No 3 seed, advanced to the final of the Mexican Open when Jack Draper retired part-way through the third set of their semi-final on Friday night in Acapulco.

De Minaur, ranked No 9, led 6-3, 2-6, 4-0 when Draper, ranked No 50, retired due to illness.

“Honestly, I wish him a speedy recovery,” De Minaur said on-court after the match. “He’s a hell of a player, hell of a talent and I hope it’s nothing too serious.”

Back-and-forth affair Across opening two sets

Circumstances surrounding Draper’s retirement are still somewhat cloudy, with the Brit retiring due to illness in the third set.

Prior to the third, however, the 22-year-old showed bursts of brilliance in what was a very topsy-turvy match.

De Minaur started the faster of the two, handing Draper his first break of serve all tournament early in the first set. The break came courtesy of a poor challenge by Draper, who stopped play to review a baseline call, which happen to have been in. De Minaur would race away with the set, playing much cleaner tennis than Draper and breaking the Brit twice to go up 6-3.

“I thought today my first set was some of the best tennis I’ve played all week,” the Australian said after the match.

However, Draper came storming back into the encounter, breaking De Minaur at the first opportunity in the second set. Suddenly, he seemed in cruise control, reminiscent of his earlier matches this week, where he dropped just 11 games to make the semi-finals.

Winning the set 6-2, the stage was set for a dramatic third set.

Draper fizzles in third set

A high-quality third set wasn’t to be, however, as Draper returned from a bathroom break unsettled. He was unable to play nearly the same level of tennis as he executed in the second set, quickly falling behind.

At 0-4 down in the third, Draper surprisingly opted not to play through whatever illness had taken a hold of him, retiring from the match instead.

“I think these are the types of situations that are the hardest to control as a player, because you’re stuck in two minds,” said De Minaur of Draper’s physical condition. “One mind is alright, you can see your opponent hurting so let’s just try and put the ball in the court and make him miss. Or, what you really have to do, is play the same style of tennis that got you to that stage.

“It’s extremely hard to focus in those situations. Often these are the kinds of matches that can complicate themselves,” he continued.

“Even though I dropped that second set, I knew he was hurting from then. I told myself to up the intensity, to get a head start in the third and make it a little bit harder for him.”

The Australian will play the winner of the match between Norwegian Casper Ruud, the No 6 seed, and Dane Holger Rune, the second seed, next.

Alex De Minaur won against Japanese Taro Daniel (6-2, 6-1), Austrian Sebastian Ofner (6-1, 6-3) and Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, the No 5 seed (1-6, 6-3, 6-3) ahead of his victory.

In the previous rounds of the Acapulco tournament, Jack Draper beat American Tommy Paul, the No 7 seed (6-0, 6-4), Japanese lucky loser Yoshihito Nishioka (6-3, 6-0) and Serb Miomir Kecmanovic (6-2, 6-2).

Acapulco ATP 500, other semi-final result (Princess Mundo Imperial Resort, hard, USD 2.206.080):

• Casper Ruud vs. Holger Rune