Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu both faced the unenviable task of facing the No1 seeds in Indian Wells in order to continue their impressive runs in Florida.
And both came up short, an abdominal injury forcing Draper to retire against Carlos Alcaraz, and Raducanu coming unstuck against the dominant force of women’s tennis in Iga Swiatek.
With it, came to an end a promising week for the British pair, who had come into the tournament with injury problems and having not competed since the Australian Open.
Draper admitted the abdominal problem which forced his in-match withdrawal against Carlos Alcaraz when 6-2, 2-0 had flared up in his impressive dismantling of Andy Murray in the preceding round.
After the match was drawn to a close after just 46 minutes, the Spaniard wrote on the television camera, “Get well soon Jack!”
The 19-year-old, who is eyeing a return to the world No1 spot, said: “I felt the ball really well. I’m really happy with that part. I would say I returned well, I hit great shots. I finished the match with confidence in my shots, to come into the next round with more confidence.”
It remains to be seen how serious the Draper injury is. Raducanu, in contrast, had arrived for pre-tournament practice in Indian Wells with strapping on her wrists.
The issue does not appear to have bothered her in her three matches but she could not match Swiatek, who is bidding to defend her Indian Wells title, in a 6-3, 6-1 loss.
The scoreline in the first set was a tad harsh on the British No1, who did little wrong in sticking to the aggressive game plan that had suited her in this tournament. The only real difference was a passage in the set in which Swiatek got on a roll to win 12 or 13 points.
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It was a similar story in set two with the scores level at 1-1 as the Pole sealed 18 out the next 20 points and was never troubled en route to what proved an increasingly comfortable win.
