Toby Samuel and Jack Draper will both be in the semi-finals at Eastbourne. Just a few days before Wimbledon, the British tournament delivered a particularly successful day for home tennis, with two British players booking their places in the final four of the men’s draw. Toby Samuel, one of the revelations of the week on the grass at Devonshire Park, confirmed his irresistible momentum by seeing off Juan Manuel Cerundolo. Jack Draper, meanwhile, continued his highly encouraging return to competition by dispatching Gabriel Diallo in authoritative fashion.
Toby Samuel and Jack Draper cap an excellent British week in Eastbourne
There were three British players in the Eastbourne quarter-finals, but there will ultimately be two in the semi-finals. While Jan Choinski saw his run ended by Zizou Bergs, Toby Samuel and Jack Draper both delivered, each coming through in straight sets against Juan Manuel Cerundolo and Gabriel Diallo respectively. Drawn in opposite halves, the two men can even still dream of an all-British final, provided Samuel gets past Bergs and Draper overcomes Ugo Humbert.
The performance of the day undoubtedly belonged to Toby Samuel, such was the way it underlined the scale of his progress over recent months. The 23-year-old Briton, who was handed a place in the main draw after falling in the final round of qualifying, picked up the first two ATP Tour wins of his career in Eastbourne before producing the finest victory not only of his week, but of his career in the quarter-finals. Up against eighth seed Juan Manuel Cerundolo, a player firmly established inside the world’s top 50, Samuel came through 6-3, 6-4 after a highly accomplished display, one in which he handled the key moments superbly and played with far greater authority than his ranking might have suggested.
That quarter-final victory extended what had already been an exceptional week. Before defeating Cerundolo, Samuel had opened his ATP account by beating Thiago Tirante, only a few days after being knocked out in qualifying by Matteo Arnaldi. Having won several Challenger titles in recent months and come through qualifying for Roland-Garros, where he reached the main draw of a Grand Slam for the first time before losing to Alex de Minaur, he is now beginning to reap the rewards of an extremely productive 2026 campaign.
Already up to world No.142 before the tournament, Samuel is set to climb several more places and edge closer to the top 100, a rise explained not only by the consistency of his performances but also by a broader shift in his set-up. Like Henry Searle, who has just won the tournament in Dublin, the British player is now working with Dan Evans, whose top-level experience and knowledge of grass courts should prove hugely valuable during this transitional phase between the Challenger circuit and the ATP Tour.
In the other half of the draw, Jack Draper is continuing a comeback that is gathering increasing momentum. The former world No.4, held back for more than a year by a succession of injuries, reached his first ATP semi-final since Queen’s in 2025 after defeating Gabriel Diallo 6-1, 6-4. Following his win over Marcos Giron and then his all-British victory against Jack Pinnington Jones, the left-hander raised his level again. Extremely solid from the baseline, particularly effective on return in the opening set and far more fluid in his movement overall, Draper looked as though he was rediscovering some of his natural authority on grass.
Draper had not played since April because of a knee injury, after the end of his 2025 season had already been disrupted by an arm problem. Eastbourne therefore represented his only opportunity to get back on court before the start of Wimbledon on 1 July, all the more so with Andy Murray now in his box for the grass-court season as part of a new working set-up.
The challenge now steps up once again for both British players. Samuel will need to back it up against Zizou Bergs, a more experienced player at this level and the man who ended Jan Choinski’s run. Draper, meanwhile, will take on Ugo Humbert, a Frenchman who is particularly comfortable on grass.
