SLOW-COACH CILIC SENDS EVANS PACKING
dAN EVANS’S hopes of a run at the US Open were ended in a third-round match which, among other things, showed how farcical the 25-second shot clock has become.
The British No 2 lost 7-6, 6-7, 6-2, 7-5 to marin Cilic after a contest that lasted over four hours.
much of it was taken up by the Croatian endlessly bouncing the ball before serving.
The courtside countdown measuring the gap between points was introduced to try and speed up the action in matches. in reality it has just seen most players use up the time available.
Cilic runs the clock down by bouncing the ball up to 19 times before serving, usually delivering it just in time, and all of it is within the rules.
There is no limit to the hiatus between first and second serves, rendering the clock even more useless.
it made what should have been an absorbing encounter almost unwatchable to anyone other than the most committed tennis fan.
Small wonder that, other than in marquee matches featuring a few big names, the sport struggles to hold on to viewers, who are increasingly intolerant of dead time.
Evans had his chances, including three set points in the opener which ended in the tiebreak slipping away 13-11.
The 32-year-old was left frustrated by another decent but unspectacular showing at a Grand Slam, but gave his opponent credit.
‘it was a tough match. i couldn’t get ahead in the fourth and missed chances in the first,’ said Evans. ‘i did well to get back into the match but marin played a bit better than me.’
it came as matteo Berrettini, the conqueror of Andy murray, advanced to the quarter-finals with a 3-6, 7-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 win over Alejandro davidovich Fokina of Spain.
davidovich Fokina had little left in the fifth set when he appeared to suffer an injury.
He went down in a heap after a hard split returning a ball along the baseline. He was on his knees and pounded the ground, grimacing as he eventually made his way to the bench.
A trainer rubbed ice on his left knee and leg during every break for the rest of the match.
Berrettini laboured through most of the match but used 18 aces and six winning break points to advance.
The 26-year-old italian, who was the 2021 Wimbledon runner-up, was forced to drop out of this year’s competition at SW19 because he tested positive for Covid.
meanwhile, defending champions Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram have made it through to the quarter-finals of the men’s doubles without even dropping a set.
The top seeds, who won their second grand slam title together in New York last year, defeated italian duo Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini 6- 1, 7- 5 yesterday in their third-round match.
They will now take on Polish duo Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski for a place in the semi-finals.