[13] Jack Draper vs Holger Rune [12], Three Key Stats: 

• Jack Draper will make his Top 10 debut next week, rising to No. 8.

• Holger Rune is bidding for his second Masters 1000 title. 

• Both Rune and Draper have earned two Top 10 wins to reach the final. 

Two immensely talented players have come of age on the big stage at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden over the last ten days. Now, they’ll go head-to-head in the final, as Rune and Draper will contest Sunday’s men’s singles final after pulling major upsets on semifinal Saturday at the BNP Paribas Open. 

Rune claimed his only previous meeting with Draper, a quarterfinal tilt at last year’s Cincinnati Open, 6-4, 6-2, and the 13th-ranked Dane, who won his lone Masters title in 2022 in Paris, comes into Sunday’s final carrying full confidence in his game. 

He’s not gripping and ripping – Rune is playing a sustainable brand of tennis that can cause problems for anyone, anytime. 

“I feel like I can play like this day in and day out,” he said on Saturday after toppling two-time finalist Daniil Medvedev, 7-5, 6-4. “I'm not closing my eyes and hitting the lines on every shot like you can maybe do once per year. I feel like I'm definitely building the points, mixing up the tempo, grinding, finding solutions when they're tough. 

“I really try to focus on what I can control, and I try to find a way to win really.” 

Rune has upset No. 8-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas and No. 5-seeded Medvedev en route to his fourth career Masters final, but he has also rallied from a set down against France’s Ugo Humbert and Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor. 

That type of grit has the Dane believing that he’s evolved considerably, as a player and a competitor. 

“I don't believe I have become a worse player the last two years,” he said. “I actually think the opposite. I think I have become a better all-around player.”

Draper can say the same thing about himself. The Brit played the match of his life on Saturday, dethroning defending two-time champion Carlos Alcaraz with an inspired effort that put all his firepower and problem-solving skills on display. At times the 23-year-old’s game was too hot to handle, even for a four-time major champion that has owned this court for the last three years.

Next he’ll seek to put the cherry on top of a run that has already assured him of a Top 10 debut in Monday’s ATP rankings. He knows he’ll have to come down from an extremely emotional victory to finish the deal.

“To come through the match today, that means so much to me, especially against a player of Carlos' caliber,” Draper said after upsetting Alcaraz 6-1, 0-6, 6-4 in Saturday’s second men’s semifinal. 

“I'm looking forward to tomorrow already. That's the thing with tennis. You've got to get over wins like today, and all my focus and energy is on making sure that I do all the right things to give myself the best chance to win the tournament tomorrow.”