Jack Draper's clay-court season got off to a disappointing start as he was forced to retire due to injury in the deciding set of his first-round match against Argentina's Tomas Martin Etcheverry at the Barcelona Open. Despite taking the first set 6-3, Draper struggled with mobility issues and had to have his right knee taped by a physio between sets. However, he was broken twice in the third set and trailed 4-1 before withdrawing from the match. Draper, ranked one spot higher than Etcheverry, had shown promise in the first set but was clearly hindered by his knee from the start of the second set, allowing Etcheverry to take control.
Etcheverry praised Draper, saying, 'He was playing unbelievably... He is a great competitor, a great fighter, and hopefully, he can recover soon to get back on tour.' This was only Draper's fourth tournament since returning from a left-arm injury that kept him out since last August's US Open. He is scheduled to play next at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Madrid from April 22. Meanwhile, British No 1 Cameron Norrie overcame a challenging three-set match against three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka, winning 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 to advance to the second round.
Norrie, who will face American Ethan Quinn next, said, 'I was not feeling well physically today, so I had to dig deep mentally... I managed to do that in the third set when I was a couple of break points down.' In other news, Katie Boulter eased into the last 16 of the Rouen Open with a dominant 6-2 6-2 win over Maria Timofeeva, bouncing back from her tight first-round defeat last week.