All about hard work and winning, says Evans

dubai — Daniel Evans gives a very simple answer when you ask him how he turned his career around.

“I just started to win more matches,” said the 26-year-old Briton whose singles ranking was 763 on June 29, 2015.

The Birmingham-based player changed his fortunes in stunning style, recording wins against seeded players at Grand Slams in 2016 and then reaching the fourth round at the 2017 Australian Open where he beat seventh seed Marin Cilic.

“I just worked hard and won a lot of good matches, which obviously I had to win. I sort of carried on from where I left off from each tournament and it’s been good fun. I have come through and obviously got up and winning some matches in the bigger tournaments.”

Evans had beaten top players like Kei Nishikori and Bernard Tomic (as a qualifier at the 2013 US Open) before his ranking nosedived to all-time low.

“I’d say I am maturing now. You get older and obviously find out, sooner or later, you have stuff to pay for. And you got to win some matches otherwise it’s hard work. So yeah, I am enjoying it and I just keep doing what I am doing now,” said the current world number 44.

Evans is now looking ahead to the challenge in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships where he will open his campaign against Germany’s Dustin Brown.

“I take every tournament by its own merit. I will just look ahead to Dustin and that’s it for me. We’ll see what happens and then if I win, the next day it’s the same. So there’s no big secret. I am just looking at each match at a time and I am looking for this week and this week only,” he said.

Evans refuses to get carried away despite his recent success.“I feel comfortable. I think I do also feel a little on edge that I am sort of here,” he said.