The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Evans makes Djokovic pay for keeping him waiting in Monaco
Dan Evans produced the best victory of his career to stun Novak Djokovic in the third round of the Rolex Monte-carlo Masters tennis.
The British number one, whose first-round win was his first on clay at tour level for four years, had never beaten a top-six player but he put on a brilliant performance against a below-par Djokovic to win 6-4, 7-5.
The world number one had won his first 10 matches of the season while Evans went into the tournament on a fourmatch losing streak.
Djokovic was scathing about his performance, saying: “Congratulations to him. I mean, he deserved to win. He was a better player. Just more focused I guess and played with a better quality in the decisive moments.
“This has been probably one of the worst matches and performances from my side I can recall in the last years. I don’t want to take anything away from his win but, from my side, I just felt awful on the court overall. Just nothing worked. It’s one of those days. I can’t take anything positive.”
It was a first meeting between the two players, and Djokovic said: “He’s got a really all-around game. He’s really a nice player to watch, not a great player to play against. Lots of talent. He’s very unpredictable with his shots. He dismantled my game.”
Evans revealed Djokovic had given him some extra motivation, telling Amazon Prime Video: “He kept me waiting in the changing rooms before the match so that was a little annoying, got me a little extra fired up.”