Jack and Emma’s learning curve

JACK DRAPER and Emma Raducanu saw their Indian Wells runs end at the hands of the top seeds, with reminders that both need more physical resilience. They can, though, look back on encouraging weeks, with the promise of more to come if they can withstand the rigours of competition. Draper is now close to the world’s top 40, but was again hit by injury as he retired at 6-2, 2-0 down to Carlos Alcaraz due to an abdominal strain.

‘I was doing further damage, so there was no point in making it worse,’ the 21-year-old told BBC Sport. ‘Against Andy (Murray, in the third round), I had a bit of hip pain and my ab towards the end was getting sore.’ Draper will have the injury scanned to see if he can play in the Miami Open next week. Raducanu found it hard in slow conditions against world No 1 Iga Swiatek, and after a competitive first set went down 6-3, 6-1. The 20-year-old, whose three wins will take her to the verge of the top 70, believes she is only at 35 per cent of her potential.

‘It’s just about consistent work to physically get to where I want to be,’ said Raducanu. ‘I had a taste of the level where the No 1 is at physically: repetitive and relentless. I just couldn’t take that.’ Britain lost its only surviving singles representative when Cam Norrie was beaten 6-4, 6-4 by American Frances Tiafoe last night.