Brit Jack Draper lasted for just 46 minutes before a lingering leg injury forced him to hand over a 6-2, 2-0 fourth-round win to top seed Carlos Alcaraz on Tuesday at the Indian Wells Masters.
Draper, who defeated tennis idol Andy Murray a day earlier, was unable to carry on in the face of the Alcaraz attack, with the teenaged Spaniard motoring to a quarter-final spot.
“Get well soon Jack!!” the winner wrote on a television camera post-match.
“No one wants to win like this,” Alcaraz said. “But sometimes tennis is hard. Health is always more important than a tournament.”
Draper had complained of his leg problem after the defeat of Murray on Monday, where he played with a heavy strapping on his right thigh.
“Jack did well to retire, I wish him a speedy recovery.”
Alcaraz has so far had a smooth ride into the last eight, but said there is always tension below the surface.
“Honestly, the nerves are there. But you have to handle that, and I would say I handled the nerves really well,” he said.
“That’s the goal for me, to show that I’m relaxed, to play relaxed. It’s something that I am practising for as well, to play my game, relaxing.
“If I lose, I lose, but I want to feel relaxed on court.”
