JACK DRAPER reached the biggest final of his career by beating Carlos Alcaraz.
And he was helped along the way by a never-seen-before DOUBLE VAR review.
Draper, 23, stunned the reigning French Open and Wimbledon champion Alcaraz in their blockbuster semi-final at Indian Wells.
The prestigious tournament is one of the nine Masters 1000 events of the year – the level below the four Grand Slams – but is often referred to as the “fifth Major”.
And No13 seed Draper will take on 12th seed Holger Rune in Sunday’s final in the Californian desert.
That is after a topsy-turvy battle with Alcaraz which included a bizarre incident early in the deciding set.
Draper blitzed through the opener 6-1 before Alcaraz roared back to claim the second 6-0 – with still only 53 minutes on the clock.
But there was a key moment when Alcaraz was serving at 1-1 15-15 in the third.
After a brutal rally, the Spaniard dropshotted his British opponent.
Draper chased the ball down and flicked it back just over the net for Alcaraz to scamper after.
But as the world No3 pushed the ball wide, umpire Mohamed Lahyani frantically said “not up” over the microphone – indicating that he felt Draper did not get to the ball before the second bounce, therefore giving the point to Alcaraz.
Draper, though, was convinced he had made the return legitimately and immediately wagged his finger and voiced his appeal to the umpire, who appeared to realise he had made a mistake.
And with the new video technology in tennis, Lahyani put on his headphones and was able to watch a video review.
The replay clearly showed Draper had indeed made the shot before the second bounce – and Lahyani agreed.
The Swedish official announced that the point would be replayed because of his blunder.
But then Draper demanded a secondary video review because he felt he deserved to be given the point because Alcaraz could not have made the return.
The US Open semi-finalist said: “He wasn’t anywhere near the ball. Mohamed, he was nowhere near. Can we do a video review on that?”
Lahyani tried to provide an excuse but relented and watched the incident again, including Alcaraz’s miss.
And he confirmed: “After review, ladies and gentlemen, the ‘not up’ call was late so the point goes to Mr Draper.”
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It prompted an outpouring of cheers and applause from the crowd.
Alcaraz, who in theory could have asked for a third review to see if the call put him off, and Draper then had a quick chat at the net before carrying on.
It proved a crucial decision as the British No1 took the next two points to break Alcaraz’s serve.
He broke again for 5-2, then was pegged back when serving for the match but made no mistake at 5-4, clinching victory on his first match point.
Draper has now won two of his three completed matches against four-time Grand Slam winner Alcaraz – the other one coming at Queen’s last summer.
The Surrey lefty, who has an ATP 250 and ATP 500 title to his name in his career from 2024, takes on Rune in arguably the biggest match of his life so far after the young Dane saw off Daniil Medvedev in the other semi-final.
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