Is it happening again? Three years on from Emma Raducanu’s Fairytale of New York, Jack Draper is composing a cover version — set to the crash of cymbals and pounding percussion.The 22-year-old is into his first Grand Slam semi-final after crushing No 10 seed Alex de Minaur 6-3, 7-5, 6-2 with another display of poise and brutal power.‘It’s amazing,’ said Draper after his debut on the 24,000-seat Arthur Ashe stadium. ‘To be out here for my first time on the biggest court in the world, it’s a dream come true. Thank you for the support, it means the world.’ Like Raducanu, he is through without dropping a set and like Raducanu, he has benefited from a draw that opened up like a Long Island oyster — but that ends now. On Friday Draper will face the winner of Wednesday night’s blockbuster meeting between 2021 champion Daniil Medvedev and world No 1 Jannik Sinner.The No 25 seed will need to produce the match of his life to win that one but the man in the baggy fuchsia top has answered every question asked of him this fortnight. We would be foolish to doubt his chances. British No 1 Jack Draper has reached the men’s singles semi-finals at the US Open in New York Draper beat Aussie 10th seed Alex de Minaur 6-3, 7-5, 6-2 in the quarter-finals on Wednesday Draper is the first British man to reach the US Open semi-finals since Andy Murray in 2012Draper struck 11 aces and 40 winners, to 21 from De Minaur. He broke his opponent’s serve six times and then he broke his spirit.The 6ft 4in Draper once said when he faced a top player he used to ‘feel like I’m 5ft 6in’. Well here he made the 6ft De Minaur look like an Oompa Loompa.The bone-white elephant in the room was De Minaur’s hip, which he hurt at Wimbledon, forcing him out of a quarter-final against Novak Djokovic. The 25-year-old Australian feared that injury would keep him out of the US Open and, before facing Dan Evans in the third round, self-diagnosed as 80-85 per cent fit.There did not look much wrong with him in wins against Evans and Jordan Thompson, and De Minaur himself claimed to be ‘peaking for the right moment’.But here he was clearly hampered, and afterwards said: ‘Today wasn’t ideal. As I said, I was expecting to feel better, I was trending in the right direction. And today was a little bit the opposite of that.’ Twenty-two-year-old Draper had never previously reached the last four at a Grand Slam De Minaur hit 21 winners and 30 unforced errors as he won 29 fewer points than DraperPerhaps De Minaur simply had not faced an opponent with the requisite quality to expose his physical difficulties. After all, Novak Djokovic looked pretty good after knee surgery at Wimbledon until Carlos Alcaraz decapitated him in the final. De Minaur himself suggested as much when he added: ‘Jack is never easy to play at the best of times, being a lefty and the way he can really move you around the court, it takes a toll on the body. Accumulation of matches takes a toll, as well.‘He played well. He deserves the win. He moved me around the court and served great. In the few chances I had I wasn’t able to execute.’Even accounting for physical issues, in each of his rounds Draper’s opponents have played way below their best. It has happened too often to be coincidence; there is something about his game that is bringing out the worst in players and what a precious quality that is.Part of it is Draper’s leftie serve – never pleasant to face – and the heavy spin he imparts on his forehand makes it curve awkwardly into the opponent’s body.There is also the fact that Draper has become a far more complete, aggressive player in the last few months. Anyone trying to replicate a gameplan that worked in the past – De Minaur, for example, had won all three previous meetings – is in for a shock. Draper, who hit 11 aces against De Minaur, has not dropped a single set in this year’s US OpenDraper has talked this fortnight of being careful not come too fast out of the blocks, thus leaving himself leggy in a potential fifth set. That has led to some slow starts in earlier rounds but nothing of the sort here as he won the first six points of the match.When he served for the first set at 5-3, De Minaur created an opening and Draper responded with one of the key moves in his US Open playbook: on break point, serving from the left, he goes for the wide slider and comes into the net.Like footballer Arjen Robben jagging in from the right to shoot left-footed, opponents know what is coming but that doesn’t mean they can do anything about it.The normally steady De Minaur was spraying errors and when he began to feel his left hamstring – perhaps collateral damage from the hip – it felt as though Draper was awfully close to the finish line.It was Draper who received the first medical timeout of the match, for strapping around the right thigh. ‘I felt something on set point in the first set,’ he said. ‘I was a little bit worried about it at the time but I played two sets on it and I felt good towards the end, it didn’t turn into a problem.’ Draper struck 40 winners and 30 unforced errors as he secured victory in just 127 minutes The 22-year-old will return to Arthur Ashe on Friday and face either Jannik Sinner or Daniil Medvedev – both previous Grand Slam winnersThat was the first sign of any discomfort this fortnight and perhaps the news that he was not the only one on court with physical issues gave De Minaur some hope as he came from 4-2 down to 4-5 up.Remarkably that was the furthest Draper had been dragged into a set this tournament. How would he respond when things weren’t going all his own way? By reeling off the next three games and then romping through the final set.Everything has come together for Draper this fortnight, in terms of his route through the draw but also in his own game. The grinding, counter-punching style he developed as a diminutive youth and the muscular approach he has adopted this year: in New York those two elements have been joined in perfect synthesis.In the semi-final, a titan awaits. But Draper is playing like a man who doesn’t want the fairytale to end.