Evans plays down Brit resurgence
Dan Evans is not ready to get swept away by the fact that four British men made it into the Us Open singles second round for the first time in 46 years.
The British no 1 meets Frenchman Corentin Moutet after joining andy Murray, Cam norrie and Kyle Edmund in winning their opening matches. Jo Konta has made it through to the second stage of the women’s event.
‘I guess it is only good for British tennis that we are all through,’ said 30-year- old Midlander Evans. ‘But by no stretch of the imagination is it to say there is strength in depth in British tennis.
‘We have all come through different routes. Cam at american college, Kedders at home in Hull and then down in London with the LTa, and I came through Loughborough and stuff.
‘so it says regimes in the past years have been pretty good but it is not strength in depth because of the regime right now. That will be tested in the next 10 years or so.
‘We have all been in the tournaments quite a lot lately. I just think now we’ve all got through it is great. You have got Jack Draper, anton Matusevich, some good guys coming through, and hopefully they do.’
Irrespective of results it is clear that the British contingent were well prepared physically after lockdown, with both Murray and norrie coming back from two sets down to win. Evans feels they were helped by the competitive scenarios provided by the Battle of the Brits and other domestic summer events.
‘They served such a great purpose, for me especially,’ added Evans. ‘I got my matches in, it got the competitive juices flowing again and on a personal level it was great to see the lower-ranked people step up and try to win in a pretty tough environment. It was a great event and hopefully we can do it again.’
another factor is that the national Tennis Centre at Roehampton, where many of them train, is finally resembling a proper elite base after the substantial money spent on it by LTa chief executive scott Lloyd. surfaces were relaid to the highest standards and no longer does it feel like a set of offices with a gym and tennis courts attached.
after a comfortable win over Thiago seyboth Wild, Evans faces an unusually talented, but sometimes temperamental opponent in world no 77 Moutet. a measure of national comparison is that 21-year-old Moutet is one of 12 top-100 men in France.
Konta will try to further build momentum when she faces world no 77 sorana Cirstea. she beat the Romanian at Eastbourne three years ago in their one previous meeting.