Great Britain's Jack Draper and Sonay Kartal both laid down major markers by reaching the last 16 of the Indian Wells Masters with two-set wins in Monday's third-round ties.
National number one Draper overcame a lackadaisical start against the USA's Jenson Brooksby to prevail 7-5 6-4, before the burgeoning Kartal saw off Polina Kudermetova by an almost identical scoreline, 7-5 6-3.
After an emphatic success over Brazilian teenage phenom Joao Fonseca in his second-round battle, Draper was the heavy favourite to overcome Brooksby, who is only just getting back into the swing of things after a lengthy doping suspension.
However, the US Open semi-finalist was found wanting in the earliest exchanges, suffering a break of serve straight off the bat as unforced errors and double faults allowed Brooksby to take a 4-1 lead.
Draper quickly dusted off the cobwebs and levelled for 4-4, though, before also breaking the home favourite in the 11th game and repeating the trick in the seventh game of the second set.
The two-time ATP Tour champion survived making 26 unforced errors to match his best-ever Indian Wells result, having also reached the fourth round in 2023, and his next opponent will be either American third seed Taylor Fritz or Chilean 30th seed Alejandro Tabilo.
Kartal faces possible Aryna Sabalenka showdown after Kudermetova win
© Imago
Not long after Draper punched his ticket to the fourth round, compatriot Kartal also broke new ground in Indian Wells, continuing her exceptional run with a straight-sets success over Kudermetova.
The 23-year-old came into the third-round tie fresh from stunning 16th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia, dropping just three games to the Brazilian, and she did not let her standards slip on Monday.
That was in spite of first blood going to Kudermetova, who broke straight off the bat and found herself 5-3 up in the first set, but Kartal remarkably fought back from 40-0 down to break for 5-5 while the 21-year-old was serving for the opener.
With the fillip of having saved three set points, the Brit broke Kudermetova again in the 12th game to take a 1-0 lead and ended up winning six games in a row against the Russian, who could not build on an early break back in the second set.
Having not hit an ace all afternoon, Kartal waited until match point to register her first unreturned serve, but her defensive display was just as praiseworthy as she won 80% of points behind her second serve.
The lucky loser could now be rewarded with a potential quarter-final with Aryna Sabalenka, if the world number one can defeat Lucia Bronzetti later on Monday.
Ben Knapton
