Norrie and Evans lead the British charge at Indian Wells after Raducanu’s early exit
Emma Raducanu's visit to Indian Wells may have been brief but Britain has plenty of interest in the men's draw, with Dan Evans and Cameron Norrie both reaching the third round on Saturday.
Evans defeated Kei Nishikori for the first time in eight years, fighting back from a set down to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, and he stands on the verge of breaking into the top 20 for the first time at the age of 31. Norrie, who has a Scottish father, arrived in the Californian desert on the back of a fifth final appearance of the season in San Diego, and he made it through with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-0 victory over American Tennys Sandgren.
Andy Murray was bidding to join them in the last 32 last night, but the main focus from a British perspective remained Raducanu's straight-sets defeat by Aliaksandra Sasnovich and where the US Open champion goes from here.
Evans said:" I would not know what she's going through.
"I think I read somewhere that she said it was sort of a good feeling to get that match out of the way, and that's probably true, isn't it, that she'll now start getting back to a bit of normality where she can play and get ready for the next tournament."
On Raducanu's lack of a permanent coach, Evans, who has spent periods travelling on his own, said: "It's not easy, obviously. But she's got the right people to be able to do the right things at the tournament."
Evans, who revealed he is having to deal with an ongoing toe problem, will next meet 11th seed Diego Schwartzman.
Norrie appeared to be cruising at 5-1 in the opening set against Sandgren and with three set points on his opponent's serve.
The American was hobbling around the court but Norrie had to dig deep to prevent Sandgren drawing level and then failed to capitalise on a lead in the second as he was pushed to a decider.
But the British No 2, who is at a career high of 26 in the rankings, got the job done in the end, racing through the third set to set up a meeting with 15th seed Roberto Bautista Agut.
Norrie said: "Definitely a lot of things to work on. I don't think I did much well today apart from fighting for every point."