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The British left hander, who won at Indian Wells earlier this year, showed all his ppwers from the baseline to put Musetti under constant pressure while intelligently working his own way out of trouble when required, especially in the second set as the Italian started to find his range.

“I felt like both of us, our quality didn’t really drop from the first ball,” Draper, who has not lost a set on his way to the final, said.

“Credit to Lorenzo, he’s obviously playing so good on the clay. I played him on hard and on grass when we were juniors, growing up with him. But on clay, he’s a different beast, so to get this win on this court in this stage, semi-finals, it means so much to me.”

Draper has now overtaken Alexander Zverev for the No.2 spot on the world rankings and will be just 100 points behind first-placed Carlos Alcaraz should he win in the final against Casper Ruud.

Ruud is hunting his biggest career title after beating Francisco Cerundolo 6-4 7-5 in the other semi-final.