There is a lot on the line for Jack Draper in Sunday’s Madrid Open final against Casper Ruud. 

As well as a chance to win his second Masters 1000 title and fourth overall, there is the opportunity to prove that his mum Nicky can be a lucky charm rather than a harbinger of woe.

When the No 5 seed’s mother decided to fly out from London for Friday’s semi-final against Lorenzo Musetti, you feared for Draper’s chances. Nicky does not come to many matches and when she has recently, it has not gone well. 

She was courtside for Draper’s first-round defeat by Jesper de Jong at the French Open last year. 

Draper romped to the 2024 US Open semi-final without dropping a set, then his mum turned up and he vomited all over the court as he was beaten by Jannik Sinner. 

And then last month in Monte Carlo, she was there for a gutsy but low-quality defeat by Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.

Jack Draper is arguably the best tennis player in the world in Jannik Sinner’s absence 

Lorenzo Musetti thought as much after losing to the world No 5 in the Madrid Open semi-finals 

His mother has occasionally been a bad luck charm, but he overthrew that against Musetti

‘It seems like every match she’s come to I’ve been terrible,’ said Draper after his 6-3, 7-6 defeat of Musetti. ‘So when she said she was going to come yesterday I was like, “Ooh, I’m not sure if you should.”

‘But she ended up coming and I’m glad she did, because tonight was a really good performance. Maybe her luck’s changed when she comes to watch me play. We’ll see.’

The way Draper is playing, he is taking luck out of the equation. The man best-placed to gauge his level was the player on the end of that vicious forehand, relentless backhand and piercing serve.

‘I have to say that at the moment Jack is, if not the best player in the world, one of them,’ said Musetti.

That is no exaggeration. When Jannik Sinner’s ban for unintentional doping ends on Sunday, only one man can truly claim to have taken advantage of the world No 1’s absence and that is his close friend Draper.

So, will he win? The bookies think so, quoting him around 1-2. At the start of this fortnight Ruud would have been reckoned a more likely champion on clay but Draper’s displays have shifted the needle.

If his charge to the final without dropping a set has revealed Draper as a threat on all surfaces, Ruud’s run confirmed him as a specialist. Of the Norwegian’s 13 career titles, 12 have come on clay.

The No 14 seed will try to make this a classic dirtball battle, a contest of will and endurance rather than shot-making. Until recently that would have spelled trouble for Draper, who had a tendency to wilt physically at the climax of matches.

Sinner is returning from his ban for doping and only Draper can be said to have benefitted

Towards the end of the second set of his semi-final, Musetti’s expansive game was in full bloom and Draper, drenched in sweat, was looking sluggish for the first time. 

The contest was teetering and it felt as though any drop in Draper’s intensity would be terminal. But he roused himself to take control of the tiebreak. 

‘In these moments now I’m just thinking about all the pain I go through on a daily basis,’ he said.