Great Britain's Billy Harris is still waiting for his first Masters main-draw win courtesy of a three-set defeat to the USA's Eliot Spizzirri in the first round of the Miami Open.
The 30-year-old navigated his way through qualifying to earn a spot in the main draw of an ATP 1000 tournament for just the second time, having made his debut in Shanghai last year.
Harris was eliminated at the first hurdle in that competition, though, and the British number four also fell short against Spizzirri, who triumphed 7-6[2] 3-6 6-2 in two hours and 18 minutes.
Harris crucially missed a break point that would have given him a 6-5 lead in the opening set, and he was left to lament unforced errors and a double fault as Spizzirri took control of the tie-breaker.
The 30-year-old managed to respond in the second thanks to a string of errors from his American opponent, thereby winning a set for the first time in a Masters main draw, but his afternoon ended in disappointing fashion.
The wild card Spizzirri reeled off a four-game winning sequence in the closing stages to advance to the second round, where he faces 24th seed Sebastian Korda after surviving 10 aces from Harris, who also committed 41 unforced errors.
Which British players are left in the Miami Open?
© Imago
Harris was one of two British players to be knocked out in the first round of the Masters competition, sharing the same fate as Katie Boulter, who was comprehensively beaten by Peyton Stearns in the women's draw.
However, Emma Raducanu made light work of the challenge posed by Japanese teenager Sayaka Ishii, dropping just three games en route to a second-round showdown with Emma Navarro.
Raducanu is the only British player left in the women's singles tournament, but the nation remains well-represented in the men's draw, where Cameron Norrie and Jacob Fearnley are next up on Thursday.
Fearnley - who also had to come through the preliminary rounds to reach the first round - seeks his maiden ATP 1000 main-draw victory against France's Benjamin Bonzi, and a win would earn him a second-round date with top seed Alexander Zverev.
Meanwhile, Norrie takes on Bu Yunchaokete for the right to take on 10th seed Alex de Minaur in the second round, while Indian Wells Masters champion Jack Draper waits to learn whether he will face Roberto Bautista Agut or Jakub Mensik in his opening tie, having received a bye to round two as the sixth seed.
Ben Knapton
