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Britain’s Emma Raducanu says she needs to be “aggressive” if she is to compete against the world’s best players after losing to Amanda Anisimova in only 52 minutes at Indian Wells.

American sixth seed Anisimova, a runner-up at Wimbledon and the US Open last year, raced to a 6-1 6-1 victory to reach the fourth round in California.

Raducanu lost her serve in the opening game, won only 11 points in the first set and was 3-0 down in the second before managing to hold serve.

“If I’m not feeling it, that gap feels more evident in terms of weight of shot, in terms of power.

“You just feel a little bit behind and your punches aren’t landing as much as theirs are.

“I need to obviously be aggressive when playing those players, but I think there’s still a long way to go to be doing that and I need to use my strengths and probably mix it up a bit more.”

Having enlisted Mark Petchey as a temporary coach after parting with Francisco Roig in January, Raducanu said last week that she is hoping to rediscover her “natural way of playing” in an attempt to build towards the form that won her the 2021 US Open.

Raducanu, who beat Anastasia Zakharova 6-1 6-3 in the second round, said: “It’s difficult to read much into the game, other than the starting the point really, as there were no rallies.

“But I have to look at what I achieved in the last nine days of practice since I arrived here, and the first match was a good one for me.

“Today I could let it get me down if I wanted to, but overall I think the days have been better than not.”

This was another sobering outing for Raducanu against one of the world’s very best.

Anismiova was outstanding from the first ball and consistently took control of the point from the first serve or the first return.

There was very little resistance from Raducanu, who never got out of the blocks and did not serve well.

She has made it clear she wants to take the ball on, and try and be aggressive against the best players in the world.

But as she later admitted, she is still a long way from doing that well enough to be competitive at the highest level.

Raducanu takes inspiration from the achievements of Simona Halep and Jessica Pegula.

World number four Coco Gauff retired from her third-round match against Alexandra Eala with a “scary” arm injury that “felt like it was on fire”.

It is only the second time in her career that Gauff, a two-time Grand Slam singles champion, has retired during a match.

The American said she would “rather finish the match and lose 6-0” but retired when trailing 6-2 2-0.

“It felt like a firework was going off inside of my arm, and then my whole arm felt like it was on fire,” Gauff said.

“As the match played, it got progressively worse, even on shots that I wasn’t even using my left arm for.”

Gauff took a medical timeout for treatment at 5-2 and the trainer returned at the end of the set to wrap her forearm.

The 21-year-old decided “it was better to stop” after 54 minutes on court.

Belarusian world number one Aryna Sabalenka hit 23 winners as she beat Romanian Jaqueline Cristian to set up a fourth-round meeting with Japan’s Naomi Osaka, who defeated Colombian Camila Osorio 6-1 3-6 6-1.

Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam champion, is playing her first tournament since withdrawing during the Australian Open in January with an abdominal injury.

Italian world number two Jannik Sinner beat Canadian Denis Shapovalov 6-3 6-2 to reach the men’s fourth round.

Sinner will face rising Brazilian star Joao Fonseca, who advanced to the fourth round of a Masters 1000 event for the first time with a 6-2 6-3 win over American Tommy Paul.

It was a match that will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. But in purely football terms, might Celtic reflect on it as the moment that propelled them to succeed in this the most ludicrous of seasons?

Martin O’Neill’s side won their Scottish Cup quarter-final against Rangers at Ibrox on penalties against all the odds.

They did not have a single shot on target in 120 minutes of football. They were under intense pressure almost throughout. Yet they won.

Off the back of a gruelling schedule – Stuttgart, Ibrox, Aberdeen and Ibrox again all within 10 days – they emerged unbeaten and buoyed by the outcomes.

Their cause was significantly hampered on Sunday by the injury-enforced absence of captain Callum McGregor and the recently talismanic Kieran Tierney, on top of long-term key figures.

“The players showed phenomenal courage and great determination and a rear-guard action, which is really commendable,” O’Neill enthused as the dust settled.

“Everyone to a man did more than their jobs. They were really terrific,” he added.

Under the pressure they faced, Celtic stood incredibly strong. The defence was outstanding. Goalkeeper Viljami Sinisalo was commanding when required. Their execution during the shootout, exemplary.

Rangers had 24 shots in the contest, six on target. Not that the impressive Sinisalo had to produce save after save, though.

That is what Danny Rohl’s side will reflect on – their inability to hurt their clearly diminished rivals, who looked there for the taking.

It wasn’t pretty but winning titles and trophies requires an ability to battle on when all feels lost and Celtic put up an almighty fight on those terms.

This outcome, and the manner of it, may well lead to Scottish Cup silverware and push them forward in defence of their Premiership title. Celtic will take on St Mirren, who beat them in the League Cup final, in the semi-final and trail league leaders Hearts by five points with nine games to go.

“They refused to lose the game,” O’Neill added. “That’s really significant.

Team spirit comes from somewhere. As does a refusal to be beaten.

In a season of stumbling on and off the pitch, Celtic have endured a quite staggering campaign. A lot of it self-inflicted from a position of strength.

They are now odds on to lift the Scottish Cup, although they were favourites to win the League Cup final before St Mirren ripped that script apart.

That was during the ill-fated Wilfried Nancy era. Had Celtic stuck with O’Neill for that game , many would argue the outcome would have been different.

The factor that seems key in this season of undiluted intrigue for Celtic is the Northern Irishman.

He guided Celtic back level with Hearts in the Premiership before making way for the Frenchman. Now he’s attempting to oversee another fightback on all fronts.

Step-by-step, O’Neill is guiding Celtic to have a fighting chance when it matters.

How? Mastery of motivation? Perhaps. Draining every ounce from what appears an unbalanced squad requiring wholesale surgery? Undoubtedly. Do players go the extra mile for him unlike others? Clearly.

O’Neill is driving Celtic game-to-game to keep punching when on the ropes. Their margin of victory in almost every fixture of late has been slender, often last minute. When defeated they respond quickly, even if unconvincingly at times.

This win over Rangers will badly wound their opponents and allow breathing space with a week to prepare for the next big test, a home match against Motherwell.

Hearts show little sign of relenting right now, though. And Rangers will be desperate to fight on in the title race with nothing else to fight for.

Celtic surely can’t perform like they did at Ibrox, so meekly in terms of attack, and expect to emerge victorious in this Premiership title race.

“It’s incredible, to be honest,” said former Celtic goalkeeper Pat Bonner. “I haven’t witnessed a Celtic team that hasn’t had one shot on target.

“I’m sorry but I’m looking at some players that aren’t good enough to be in that Celtic team. It was so poor, so poor.”

It’s not a point lost on Celtic’s manager.

“There’s things we feel that we’re far from the finished article,” O’Neill conceded. “It should keep confidence high. Does it change things for the league? I’m not sure.”

He didn’t start a clutch of recent recruits, who were presumably brought in to make an impact.