Great Britain's hopes of singles glory at the Indian Wells Masters have been extinguished owing to Emma Raducanu and Cameron Norrie's third-round exits on Monday.
Raducanu gave reigning Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka a terrific run for her money but eventually went down 3-6 5-7 to the second seed, prior to which Gael Monfils came from a set down to eliminate Norrie 6-7[5] 7-6[5] 6-3.
Heading into their maiden meeting on the WTA Tour, the physical edge certainly belonged to Raducanu, who had strolled past Spanish qualifier Rebeka Masarova in round one before seeing Dayana Yastremska withdraw injured in their second-round match.
Meanwhile, Sabalenka had to come through a gruelling three-setter with Peyton Stearns in her opening battle, and neither player was troubled until the sixth game, when Raducanu lost serve to 30 before Sabalenka backed up the break with a convincing love hold.
The Belarusian squandered two chances to wrap up the first set on Raducanu's serve and fell 40-0 down while serving for the set in the ninth game, but she clawed her way back and saved a fourth break point before belatedly getting over the line.
There was evidently plenty of fight in Raducanu - currently down at 250th in the world - and despite falling a set and a break down as Sabalenka established a 3-2 lead in the second, the former US Open champion broke back immediately.
© Reuters
However, Raducanu then squandered a pivotal chance to break the second seed in the eighth game, and Sabalenka capitalised in the 11th, thus giving herself the chance to serve for the match rather than face a nail-biting tie-breaker.
Raducanu refused to wave the white flag and saved three match points, but the Briton also wasted an identical number of chances to break her opponent, and she would eventually pay for those missed openings as Sabalenka sent a cross-court forehand beyond her reach on her fourth match point.
Last year's runner up will face either Elina Svitolina or Emma Navarro in the fourth round, while in the men's singles event, Norrie's bid for a second Indian Wells crown ended at the hands of the veteran Monfils.
The 28th seed had already been beaten in each of his previous three meetings with the Frenchman, but after an opening set rife with mistakes from both men, Norrie took the tie-breaker on a Monfils double fault.
A one-set lead was particularly vulnerable for Norrie, though, as he had lost his last two clashes with Monfils after taking the opener, and history repeated itself for the British number one, who let a 3-0 lead slip in the second set.
Norrie's 22nd unforced error of the day gifted Monfils a 5-3 lead in the deciding set, and despite committing 12 double faults over the course of the match, the Frenchman found his serve when it mattered most, advancing to the last 16 on a love hold.
Ben Knapton
