Draper and Evans do battle on big British Saturday at Indian Wells

A s the best tennis players in the world converged on the California desert for the Indian Wells Masters last year, Jack Draper was not among them. Draper was making significant progress and had won three ATP Challenger events early in the season, but was scrapping in the lower levels of the sport, still waiting to make the definitive step up.

This year marks Draper’s arrival at the top of tennis, his first full season on the ATP Tour, and the tests will keep on coming. On Saturday at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells he will take part in an all-British second-round battle against Dan Evans, the 24th seed.

Saturday will also be a busy day for the other prominent British players. Emma Raducanu will face Magda Linette, the 20th seed, and Andy Murray plays the 15th seed Pablo Carreño Busta.

For Draper, meeting a top-30 player will be a measure of his form after yet more physical issues at the start of the year. After his off-season preparation was ruined by a virus, he suffered from cramp in his Australian Open first-round defeat against Rafael Nadal and then withdrew from all tournaments in February due to other fitness problems. Draper played brilliantly in his 6-1, 6-1 first-round win against Leandro Riedi, but Evans’s court sense, athleticism and slice backhand will be far more disruptive.

The pair have trained with each other numerous times at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton and know each other’s games well. In Australia, Evans was extremely complimentary of Draper, noting that in addition to Draper’s obvious physical weapons, his movement and mindset position him well.

“I think it is a good thing that tennis is not the be-all and end-all, and his perspective is good on life and tennis,” he said. “I think