Combat in Single-Player Campaigns

[Ezra]

Does anyone have advice for creating combat encounters for a single player?

I'm GM'ing a Conan campaign for a friend of mine, but he ends up recovering from wounds after each session. Even the weakest opponents injure him enough to require a period of bed rest.

How to Be a GURPS GM recommends making the enemies attacks roughly equal to the PCs' DR, but even a large knife exceeds the average DR of leather (+1). He has decent weapon skills (14?), but he took the Struggling disadvantage, so he doesn't have great armor--only on his torso and groin. Still, I've presented opponents with no armor, and they still hurt him.