Defeat leaves Djokovic with plenty to ponder

Speaking afterwards, the British number one, told 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.

“It’s one against one, got to roll the balls out and see who wins. He gave me some cheap ones today, which he never normally does, so I was a little lucky there, but I’m just really happy with coming through.”

He added: “My game plan was to try to bring him forward and have him hit the ball low in the court. It was difficult to get to the net and I felt sometimes I was doing too much running.

“But I also thought I did a good job to get out of my service games. He had so many break points and didn’t take them, so I was a little lucky there.”

Djokovic, pictured, praised Evans but was scathing about his own performance, telling reporters: “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 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 away from this match.

“It’s not the first, neither the last, loss but definitely leaves a bitter feeling exiting the court this way.”

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