Evans makes a meal out of loss to veteran

DAN EVANS blamed a late lunch after throwing away a first-set lead in a sickening first round defeat by Tommy Robredo.

The British No 4, above, raced into an early lead against a 35-year-old listed No281 in the world despite claiming he could not breathe in the oppressive heat.

He left the court at the end of the first set to make himself ill and despite breaking soon after his return, Evans’ challenge slowly wilting in the Paris sunshine.

Despite going off court a second time to cool down and placing bags of ice on the back of his neck, courtside temperatures in excess of 30C took their toll on Evans and he finally succumbed with a final double fault to a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 defeat after 2hrs 27 mins.

He subsequently explained that Daniil Medvedev’s retirement in the previous match on Court 2 had thrown his preparations out of sync.

“I hadn’t eaten that long before, so I was struggling for quite a while,” he said. “I didn’t feel good but I think it’s in the spirit to sort of just carry on playing.

“The first time I went off I threw up a little bit. It was just sitting in my stomach, so I thought it was the best thing to do.

“But it was hot and it was really tough. Tommy just didn’t find his feet at the start and then it was clear he was way better than me on that surface and looked physically better as well, which was a bit worrying.” Evans is confident he is in good shape for the grasscourt season, though, and hopes he will benefit from his clay travails.

“I feel good,” he said. “I’ve played a lot of tennis. It’s a different story on the quicker surface. Obviously, that helps me a lot. I don’t worry about five sets on hard or grass. It was just today was definitely a lot different to what I imagined.“

By contrast, in the performance of the day, 23-year-old Dominic Thiem barely broke sweat, the No 6 seed taking just 80 minutes to see off another player tipped to have a bright future, Bernard Tomic.

Last year’s semifinalist Thiem won 13 of the last 15 games in a 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 rout.