The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
British No 3 Dan Evans landed the biggest shock of the Australian Open so far after knocking out seventh seed Marin Cilic in four sets yesterday.
Aritish No 3 wears £20 T-shirt as he secures shock victory over world No 7 Marin cilic
Dan Evans grabbed the biggest win of his career by beating world No 7 Marin Cilic and did it wearing a £20 T-shirt he bought himself.
Evans stunned Cilic with a 3-6 7-5 6-3 6-3 victory in what was his first ever grand slam success against a top-10 player and the biggest shock of the Australian Open so far.
The 26-year-old from Solihull enthralled a packed-out crowd on Melbourne Park’s outer Court Three but has never been one to seek the limelight, as evidenced by his plain attire for the first grand slam of the year.
“I’m just out of contract with Nike. They didn’t offer me another contract so I just went to the store and bought a load of clothes the other day, plain clothes,” Evans said.
“The shirts are £19.99. I just picked the shorts up. I was more worried about the shirts. I bought about 18 shirts, something like that.”
Offers are likely to be streaming in after Evans’ gutsy display, which earns him a third-round meeting with Australia’s big-serving but temperamental Bernard Tomic.
The British No 3 scored his first ever top-10 scalp against Dominic Thiem en route to the Sydney International final last week but, at number seven, not only is Cilic ranked one higher than the Austrian, the scale and stage of this triumph gave it far greater significance.
“It’s definitely the biggest win of my career,” Evans said.
“It’s a proper win. Last week was three sets against Thiem. Five sets is the ultimate test, I think. It was really good. I think I played as well as I can play today.”
Stan Wawrinka had to save match point against Evans before winning the US Open in September and this triumph proved his performance against the Swiss was no fluke.
Evans, however, failed to close out at Flushing Meadows and he admitted his missed opportunity there had come to mind when Cilic saved two of three match points.
“I still thought about that match on the court today. It’s not easy when you had the opportunity to sort of close out the big match and then lose,” Evans said.
“I thought about it at 40-30, last game, last match point. I didn’t want to go down the other end, sit down and serve for it.
“I didn’t think I did much wrong actually in the two match points but I was pretty pleased when he netted the forehand.”
Evans was quicker, cleverer and more consistent than Cilic, who at 6ft 6in towered above his opponent in stature but was outthought and outfought over a pulsating two hours and 58 minutes.
His victory means Evans has now reached three consecutive grand slam third rounds and continues a remarkable rise that has seen him surge from 319th in the world this time two years ago, to inside the top 50.
He might fancy his chances against Tomic too, having beaten the world No 27 at the 2013 US Open.