Jack Draper angrily breaks advertising board in defeat by Jiri Lehecka

Scratching around for form and struggling with tonsillitis, Jack Draper walked an emotional tightrope this week to the brink of the Queen’s Club final.

The British No1 was a bubbling volcano of emotion on Saturday and when Jiri Lehecka hammered a backhand past him for the decisive break of serve he erupted, smacking his racket into an advertising hoarding.

‘A bit of everything, really,’ said Draper after his semi-final defeat, when asked to explain the source of his frustration. ‘The way I was playing at times, the fact I had worked so hard to get myself in that position.

‘I really tried to get the energy going. When you see that ball go past you on that point, it’s very tough to see yourself breaking the next game.’

The explosion came at 5-5, in the deciding set, Lehecka serving out to record a 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 victory.

‘I don’t condone that behaviour but that’s where I was at today,’ added Draper. ‘When you’re not feeling great, your energy is really low, you use everything you can to get yourself up. I’m almost getting angry to get fired up.

‘In the end, anger just spilled over. Like I said, I don’t want to behave like that but it’s just the way I am as a competitor. Sometimes I play on a bit of a tightrope.’

Draper played a horrible first game of the match, two unforced errors and a double fault conceding the break, and the frustration built from there.

As he failed to break from 40-0 up early in the second set he blasted a loose ball into the stands – ridiculously receiving no ball abuse warning from umpire Adel Nour, the same official who was in charge for Corentin Moutet’s meltdown against Jacob Fearnley earlier in the week.

Draper punctuated that ball blast with a yell of ‘f*** off’ – to himself, his coaching box and the world in general.

Draper’s serve has kept him in matches all week and it did so here, with 14 aces and 82 per cent of first serve points won.

But towards the end Lehecka seemed to get a read on it. Serving at 5-5 in the deciding set, Draper was given a warning for slow play and then when the break was conceded he attacked the digital advertising hoarding, whacking his knee into it on his follow-through. ‘Just a little graze,’ he said of the damage done by that.

Ironically, the board at the time was displaying Dunlop, the make of the racket with which Draper destroyed it. There were echoes of David Nalbandian’s infamous disqualification from the final here in 2012 when he hacked at a board with his racket and caught a good chunk of the line judge’s leg on the follow through. Perhaps Draper can count himself lucky the ATP have ditched the officials for robots this year – but he can still expect a fine incoming.

Draper’s ability is such that he can make a semi-final without playing his best tennis and that has certainly been the case here. He has been poorly all week and the day before this match was diagnosed with tonsillitis.

‘Today’s probably the worst I have felt,’ said Draper. ‘Did I think about withdrawing? Not at all. I’m in the semifinals at Queen’s; I’d probably go on court with a broken leg. I wouldn’t have pulled out for anything.’

Draper will take a few days off court to recover and will perhaps play an exhibition match at the Hurlingham Club before arriving at Wimbledon as the No4 seed. Whilst going down in a blaze of fury is not ideal preparation for the biggest tournament of his life, Draper was rightly proud of reaching the last four here despite not feeling his best.

‘I’m gutted right now,’ said Draper. ‘I could have been out there in the final of a tournament I watched since I was young.

‘It hurts a bit more because it’s at home. I use it as fuel and as motivation to get better. I’m really happy to get four matches on the grass. That’s a real plus going into Wimbledon.’

Lehecka, who has only dropped one set all week, will face Carlos Alcaraz in today’s HSBC Championships final, after the No1 seed saw off fellow Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4, 6-4. It is a worthy final between the two best players of the week.

Meanwhile, in Eastbourne, Emma Raducanu has been drawn to face American Ann Li in the first round. The British No1 is managing a back issue ahead of Wimbledon and withdrew from this week’s event in Berlin, but is expected to make her return by the seaside.