Boulter and Norrie exit Indian Wells in third round

Katie Boulter and Cameron Norrie were knocked out of Indian Wells on Sunday as both suffered straight-set defeats in the third round.

Boulter’s run in the women’s singles ended as the British number one was beaten 6-0 7-5 by seventh seed Elena Rybakina.

Norrie was earlier dumped out of the men’s singles as the British number two lost 6-3 7-5 to 10th seed Tommy Paul.

Their exits mean Sonay Kartal is the last Briton left in the women’s draw after claiming a career-best win in California, and Jack Draper the last British male.

Boulter was playing in her first tournament since January’s Australian Open because of a foot injury and received a first-round bye as the 25th seed.

The 28-year-old then beat Irina-Camelia Begu to set up a meeting with former Wimbledon champion Rybakina, who looked set for a swift victory as she won the first seven games to take the first set in 26 minutes.

Boulter regrouped in the second set and broke Kazakhstan’s Rybakina to claim a 4-3 lead before serving for the set at 5-4.

She saved two break points, but Rybakina took advantage of a third to level it up and, after holding her serve, she broke Boulter thanks to a double fault on match point.

Rybakina will face either Russian ninth seed Mirra Andreeva or Denmark’s Clara Tauson in the fourth round.

Norrie claimed his biggest career title at the hard-court tournament in 2021 but was beaten this time by home hope Paul, who will play Russian fifth seed Daniil Medvedev next.

“It was a super weird match, a lot of breaks”, said Paul, the world number 11.

“I started pretty well and tried to play some aggressive tennis. It was an up-and-down match on both sides”.

In their first meeting since 2022, both players struggled on serve in the first set.

Norrie, ranked 77th in the world, was broken three times before handing Paul the opener with a double fault on the second set point.

In the second set, Norrie again found himself a break down at 4-2 but rallied to level before taking a 0-30 lead on Paul’s serve.

Paul fought back before taking advantage of Norrie’s error-strewn serving, the Briton conceding the match with his fifth double fault of the set and seventh of the match.

Draper is left to carry British hopes in the men’s draw, with the 13th seed set to face American Jenson Brooksby on Monday.