Getting shirty: $15 man Evans hoping for brand new kit deal
Tomic clash has added spice due to 2012 incident
Britain’s Dan Evans said he was hoping to find a new kit sponsor after he reached the Australian Open third round wearing a A$20 (Dh55) shirt he bought in a Melbourne shop.
Evans revealed his shopping trip after he shocked world No. 7 Marin Cilic to equal his best Grand Slam performance and set up a tantalising match with Bernard Tomic today. “I’m just out of contract with Nike. They didn’t offer me another contract. I just went to the store and bought a load of clothes the other day, plain clothes,” Evans said.
“A$19.99, the shirts are,” he said, adding that he “didn’t look” how much his shorts cost.
“I was more about the shirts.”
Evans’ kit contract lapsed in December, despite a breakthrough season for a player who once had a reputation for too much partying.
Evans, 26, broke into the top 100 — from 772 a year earlier — and he now sits at a career-high of 51, after reaching his first ATP Tour final this month in Sydney.
Wednesday’s victory over worried Cilic was only his second against a top-10 player after he defeated Austria’s Dominic Thiem, ranked eight, in the Sydney quarter-finals.
But Evans’ profile remains low. After beating Cilic, he revealed that exEngland cricketer Kevin Pietersen had snubbed his request for a selfie when he saw him in Melbourne.
Today’s matchup with Australia’s Tomic has an edge to it after an incident in 2012, when Tomic’s father refused to let Evans practice with his son, saying he wasn’t good enough. Evans subsequently beat Tomic at the US Open a year later, although both players insist they are now good friends.