DAN FIRES A VOLLEY
Evans takes aim at British game
DAN EVANS has claimed Emma Raducanu’s US Open triumph “papered over the cracks” in British tennis after only three men made the singles at this year’s French Open.
And the British No.2 launched an extraordinary personal attack on former LTA stat man Simon Timson – who is now performance director at Manchester City.
With Andy Murray preparing for the grass court season, Evans, Cameron Norrie and Jack Draper are the lone British singles representatives at the clay court Slam after 10 lost in qualifying. With Raducanu injured, it is the first time since the 2009 US Open that no British woman has made it through to the singles draw at a Major.
Raducanu’s 2021 New York triumph seemed to herald a brave new dawn but she is still British No.1 despite falling to world No.106.
“Has her success papered over the cracks? Yeah,” said No.20 seed Evans, who faces Australian wildcard Thanasi Kokkinakis in the first round tomorrow. “They’ve [LTA] been lucky that they had a
Grand Slam champion and she was a very good tennis player, but the rankings don’t lie.
“The grass last year really helped paper over some cracks as well. After the grass, there will be a bit of soulsearching, I imagine.”
Asked how he felt about the state of British tennis, Evans said: “I couldn’t give a s*** about it.
“You’ve got a guy Simon Timson, who sat next to me after I came back from my drug ban [in 2018] and told me, ‘With all due respect to James Ward here and Heather Watson, I put you three in the same bracket. You are close to finishing your career.’
“I seem to have done all right since that meeting. He didn’t know what he was watching.”
In response, an LTA spokesperson said: “Despite this week’s results, we are making longer-term progress – but there is more work to do. We believe we are heading in the right direction.” ❑CAMERON NORRIE lost 6-3 6-0 to Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo in the semi-finals of the Lyon Open.