Gutsy Emma Raducanu earns best win since US Open title

Emma Raducanu scored her best win in the 18 months since her US Open triumph, overcoming world No 13 Beatriz Haddad Maia in a thrilling match under the palm trees of Indian Wells.

Despite her status as a grand slam champion, Raducanu is still relatively inexperienced against opposition of this quality, having only come up against top-20 players on eight previous occasions.  But you wouldn’t have known it from the way she tore into Haddad Maia from the word go, ripping through her opening service game to love and then breaking the Brazilian’s mighty left-handed serve at the first opportunity.

Raducanu’s fast start was unexpected – particularly from a woman who had arrived in Indian Wells last week in some disarray, wearing heavy strapping on both wrists and struggling with the aftermath of her recent bout of tonsillitis.

Haddad Maia appeared to be discombobulated by the positivity of Raducanu’s early ball-striking and footwork, which saw the Briton stepping forward into the court to open up the angles at every opportunity. That first set was something of a mismatch – and yet Raducanu allowed the momentum to slip away early in the second set.

As she said afterwards, “I dropped my intensity and against such a great opponent like Beatriz, it’s 6-2 before you know it.”

That was indeed the situation. Haddad Maia began to apply her physical strength – she is an imposing figure at 6ft tall with biceps like steel hawsers – and now it was Raducanu doing most of the retrieving.

Raducanu took a bathroom break after the second set. It didn’t appear as if Haddad Maia was especially pleased by the delay, as she had a word with the chair umpire and also seemed to say something to Raducanu when she eventually returned to the court.

But now we saw the best of the match, as both players went after their groundstrokes with aggressive intent. One magnificent rally found Raducanu needing to play six successive overheads as Haddad Maia danced around at the back of the court, sending up lob after lob in a manner somewhat reminiscent of Andy Murray.

Eventually the pressure told on Haddad Maia, who netted a backhand to be broken for 4-3. Now Raducanu was in the driving seat, and she held her nerve superbly despite seeing her first three match points all saved by her gutsy yet eventually disappointed opponent.

After 2hr 20mins of fascinating drama, Raducanu was home by a 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 scoreline. This was only the second time since her drive to the US Open title that she had won three matches at the same event, and Indian Wells is a much bigger deal than Seoul (which is where she reached the semi-finals in September before retiring with injury).

Indian Wells also has a much bigger draw – of 96 players as opposed to Seoul’s 32 – so she is only into the last 16. But this win certainly reminded everyone of the qualities that carried her to her stunning title run in New York – namely innate competitiveness, great heart, wonderful athleticism and sound technique.

“I’m extremely happy with the way I fought and hung in in the third set,” said Raducanu afterwards. “I managed to regain my focus and intensity.

“It’s pretty amazing for me. I haven’t really prepared for this tournament. I haven’t really practised. So to come out here and perform at this level and be competitive is a great sign for me.

“I just had two great weeks [of training] back home in London, and to see those coming through and showing on the match court at crucial points sometimes is very exciting to me. Right now, I’m focused on just getting back, resting and recovering for tomorrow, because this was a tough match in the heat.”

Apprentice beats master as Draper sees off Murray

Indian Wells witnessed a symbolic passing of the torch as Great Britain’s most exciting male tyro – 21-year-old Jack Draper – overcame his mentor and childhood idol Andy Murray in a high-quality match in the Californian desert.

Draper spoke warmly about his defeated opponent after coming through this riveting 2hr 3min encounter. Judging by the straight-sets scoreline, you might imagine that this was an easy night. But in fact he had needed 83 minutes to chisel out the first set via a tense tie-break.

“If I was going to say one sporting person who has inspired me the most it would be Andy,” Draper told the BBC after his 7-6, 6-2 win. “To come off court with the win against Andy - I’ll never forget that moment.

“I’m very proud of myself. Beating [British No 2] Dan Evans, as well in the previous round – Dan’s a fierce competitor, someone who I’ve looked up to. That gave me confidence to go out there tonight and think ‘Even though it’s a really tough mental challenge again, I can do this.’”

Before the match, Murray had spoken about experiencing some “incredible rallies” during training sessions with Draper. Both men enjoy slugging it out from the baseline, and in the early stages of this match their points were lasting an average of eight shots each – around double the tour average.

Here was an extremely physical contest from the start. But Draper had an extra X-factor: the ability to break the grinding rhythm with the occasional screaming forehand or deft drop-shot. His game-style is very individual, because he tends to wait and wait … and then only use his point-ending gifts when he is forced into a tricky position in the corner of the court.

Serving at a massive average speed of 123mph, Draper held the initiative through most of the first set, especially after Murray had double-faulted to hand over a break in the fourth game. But he failed to serve it out at 5-4, and had to go the long way around in the tie-break, eventually stealing that crucial game 8-6 with an ace.

Draper then had heavy strapping applied to his right thigh, but the trainer would cut it off later in the second set as he gradually imposed himself on a tiring Murray. The match was watched by Indian Wells’s owner – software billionaire Larry Ellison – who made a rare visit to Stadium 2 for the privilege.

With Draper earning a crack at reigning US Open champion Carlos Alcaraz on Tuesday night, this is the second year in a row that British tennis has set a new record at Indian Wells. There are three Britons through to the last 16s of this prestigious tournament (which was founded in 1974) for the first time.

Earlier, Emma Raducanu had produced her best tennis since her own US Open triumph in 2021 to overcome world No 13 Beatriz Haddad Maia in straight sets. On Monday night, she will follow Draper onto the main stadium to play world No 1 Iga Swiatek (both matches have been scheduled in the night session, which starts at 1am GMT) while Cameron Norrie is due to take on Russia’s Andrey Rublev earlier in the day.

(Last year, Briton had a representative in the last 16s of both singles events for the first time, with Norrie going out to Alcaraz in the quarter-finals and Harriet Dart enjoying her best run at a big event.)

Alcaraz – the world No 2 – represents a tough draw for Draper, especially as the Briton is carrying a niggle in that right hip/thigh area. “This is my first tournament in the last couple of months since I played Rafa [Nadal] in the Australian Open,” said Draper, who is appearing at Indian Wells for the first time.

“My body is in a position at the moment where I am improving a lot. I have a fitness trainer, Dejan Vojnovic, who is incredible, but I have only been working with him for three months and this is a long-term project.

“It’s something that is bothering me a bit at the moment. Day by day it can only get better, but being sore in this tournament was always something that was going to be likely.”