After an extremely difficult month in which she was pursued across tennis tournaments in Asia by an obsessive spectator, Emma Raducanu struggled to find her range and rhythm on her return to competition and was comprehensively defeated 6-3, 6-2 by Moyuka Uchijima of Japan in the first round of the Indian Wells Open on Thursday.

Over the past few years, the organisers at Indian Wells have marketed the tournament as Tennis Paradise, a reference to the handsome mountainous landscape that surrounds the court and its warm, sunny weather. In reality, though, the conditions are often some of the most hellish on tour. Along with the slow conditions because of the dry, dusty desert air, gusty wind can make it incredibly challenging for all players.

From the start of the day, it was clear that the windy conditions would make life extremely difficult. Raducanu had begun well, immediately establishing a break lead in the opening games of the match, but the Japanese player handled the challenging circumstances best.

While Raducanu tried to dictate the match from inside the baseline, her errors piled up in the unforgiving conditions. Uchijima, who is ranked four places above Raducanu at No 52, produced an excellent performance that illustrated why she has won many matches and risen 99 spots in the WTA rankings over the past year. She remained rock solid from the baseline across both sets while also serving well in the decisive moments and sweeping up all short balls with her heavy topspin forehand.

During her pre-tournament press interviews, Raducanu said that she had taken a week off to clear her head and she had initially been unsure about whether she would make the trip to Indian Wells so soon after the stalking incident. She has now lost five of her last six matches since her positive run to the Australian Open third round. Still, considering the events of her last match, when she was overcome with emotion at the Dubai Open after spotting her stalker in the crowd, simply being back on court and able to calmly conduct her business is a positive outcome.

As she tries to find her feet again on the tour, Raducanu will hope that the new face in her player box will help. Thursday marked her first match of a trial run with the Slovak coach Vladimir Platenik, who has worked with a number of former top 10 players, including Daria asatkina, Belinda Bencic, Dominika Cibulkova and Veronika Kudermetova, in addition to being head coach of the prominent Empire Tennis Academy in Trnava. Raducanu’s previous coach, Nick Cavaday, decided to part ways with her after the Australian Open because of health issues.

Earlier on Thursday, the men’s British No 3 Jacob Fearnley went down to a brutal 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 defeat by the 18-year-old João Fonseca in the final set of his ATP Masters 1000 debut.

After a poor opening set, Fearnley played spectacular attacking tennis in the middle of the match, completely outhitting one of the most destructive ball strikers in the game, and put himself in position for a strong victory. From 3-1 in the third set, though, Fearnley’s nerves simply got the better of him while Fonseca showed the mental toughness and inner belief that complements his shotmaking. Fonseca rolled through the final eight games to close out an unforgettable victory on his Indian Wells debut.

After following up his breakout win at the Australian Open against Andrey Rublev by winning his first ATP title in Buenos Aires last month, Fonseca has set up another significant match in the second round – he will next face the British No 1 and 13th seed Jack Draper on Saturday.