Dan Evans follows up Djokovic win by reaching semi-finals in Monte Carlo
Dan Evans followed up his brilliant upset of Novak Djokovic at the MonteCarlo Masters by beating David Goffin to reach the semi-finals.
The British No 1 stunned world No 1 Djokovic on Thursday for the biggest win of his career and ensured there was no letdown as he battled to a 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 victory over 11th seed Goffin on Friday. He will face fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semi-final on Saturday.
Evans has now earned as many tour-level clay-court victories and wins at Masters level this week as in the rest of his career combined and could surpass his career-high ranking of 26 next week.
As against Djokovic, Evans began superbly but Goffin found his range on his forehand at the end of the opening set, recovering from 3-5 to take it with a run of four games in a row. But he could not maintain that level and Evans forged ahead early in the second set, this time holding on to his advantage.
Evans, 30, has the ability to bring out his best at the biggest moments and he dug in brilliantly to save four break points at 4-4 in the deciding set – he saved 15 of 17 during the match. Goffin could not show similar fortitudeand a wild final shot drew a huge roar from Evans.
Rafael Nadal failed to reach the semi-finals at the Monte-Carlo Masters for only the second time in his last 16 appearances as he suffered a shock defeat to Andrey Rublev. The Spaniard was bidding for his 12th title at one of his favourite venues but had a rare off day as he slipped to a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 defeat against the Russian, the No 6 seed.