Great Britain's hopes of glory in the singles tournament at the 2023 Shanghai Masters ended with Dan Evans's straight-sets defeat to world number two Carlos Alcaraz.
Just over a month on from the Spaniard's triumph over Evans at the US Open, Alcaraz marched to a 7-6[1] 6-4 third-round win against the plucky 33-year-old, who fought courageously but just ran out of steam against the top seed.
Evans had memorably taken a set against the former US Open champion during their meeting at Flushing Meadows in September, and he had the upper hand early on in Monday's tie, breaking for a 3-1 lead thanks to a succession of unforced errors from Alcaraz.
By that point, Alcaraz had already missed two chances to break Evans, who moved 4-1 up courtesy of a nail-biting hold, saving as many as six break points from Alcaraz before the Spaniard's pressure finally told.
Alcaraz embarked on a three-game winning streak to level the scores before an increasingly nervy Evans - who posted back-to-back double faults in the ninth game - beat away another three break points to force a tie-breaker, in which the top seed dominated from start to finish.
Limiting Alcaraz to just the one break from a whopping 13 opportunities was testament to Evans's grit in the first set, and with the world number two struggling on serve early on the second set, Evans capitalised with a break for a 2-1 advantage.
© Reuters
However, the 33-year-old lost his serve straight away, and it was then his turn to squander a surfeit of break points, having lost a 40-0 lead on Alcaraz's serve in game five before a tense finale.
Serving to stay in the match, Evans succumbed to a sensational down-the-line backhand return on match point from Alcaraz, who let out an almighty roar as soon as the ball left his racquet to make it four wins from four against the world number 30.
Alcaraz will now take on Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov for a place in the quarter-finals, and Evans was not the only Briton to suffer disappointment on Monday, as Katie Boulter lost in the first round of the Korea Open.
The 27-year-old gave world number one Aryna Sabalenka an extremely good run for her money in Beijing last week, but her powers waned in a 4-6 4-6 loss to Slovenia's Kaja Juvan.
Immediately after missing two break points, Juvan lost her serve in the seventh game of the first set, but Boulter could not build on that advantage as she lost three on the bounce to cede the opener.
Serving mistakes bedevilled both players in the second set, where Boulter and Juvan both broke each other three times in the opening seven games, but the former was left to rue untimely unforced errors and a total of 11 double faults as Juvan progressed to round two.
Ben Knapton
