When Dan Evans, Heather Watson and Laura Robson came to New York in 2013 for the US Open, none could have envisaged how dramatically any of their lives and careers would unravel over the next three years. On day two of this year’s tournament each had a slightly different story to tell.
Evans, who scurried to the gates of the fourth round back then but is dismissive of the nostalgia those heroics still generate in the media, marched into round two on Tuesday with a four-sets win of brio and energy against the American Rajeev Ram – but without his mum. She was back in Birmingham, he said, and might only have watched it on TV if her sister was with her.
“She has never watched me play tennis, ever,” he said. “Never. She doesn’t really like it, to be honest, but I don’t like her job either. She’s a nurse.”
Evans, one of the best entertainers in tennis, on or off the court, provided more evidence of why he can be such a lurking shark in any tournament.
In 2013 he beat Kei Nishikori and Bernard Tomic, then gave a returning Tommy Robredo the fright of his life, the Spaniard grateful to get through to the next round – where he beat Roger Federer. “On any given day, I can beat most players,” he said this week.
On Tuesday it was Ram (possibly the only American here vaguely interested in cricket, having Indian parents). On Thursday he will face Alexander Zverev, the young Russian-German and 27th seed with the languid ground strokes, who beat his compatriot Daniel Brands 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 on the adjacent Court Five. It could be the match of the round.
Birmingham’s favourite sporting joker took two and a half hours to beat Ram, the world No 104 and Olympic mixed doubles silver medallist 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 on a small outside court that entertained more passing traffic than Spaghetti Junction. The fact he was wearing a day-glo yellow top that somehow merged with the top half of his shorts lent a surreal element to his performance.
“It’s obviously a good kit,” he said with a nod to the sponsors. “Some people pull it off better than others, I guess. It wouldn’t look bad on a building site.”
There were few laughs on Court 13, where Watson, the 2009 junior champion, went out in the first round for the sixth time in a row. She staggered from the scene of her youthful triumph and adult woe weeping and wondering, after she nearly collapsed during her straight-sets defeat by the Dutch qualifier Richèl Hogenkamp, who is ranked 135 in the world.
“I don’t know,” is all Watson could say about fears that a debilitating virus that has gripped her for three days might be a return of the glandular fever that left her devastated in 2013. She is waiting on blood tests but wants to play in doubles alongside Michaella Krajicek, the half-sister of Richard, the 1996 Wimbledon champion. It does not sound a great move.
Watson took a long medical timeout at the end of the first set and said she could barely stand at the end of the match. “The pills they gave me didn’t really help,” she said after Hogenkamp, a moderate player who has never been inside the top 100, won 6-2, 7-5 in an hour and 42 minutes.
Hogankamp’s biggest win of her career, by far, was over former slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in more than four hours in a Fed Cup match this year, the longest in the history of the competition. If that was an earthquake, this was at least an earth tremor.
A distraught Watson said: “I was very ill today. I’ve had a fever the last three days. Playing in this heat is almost impossible when you feel that bad. I was struggling to breathe and my back was just, I don’t know exactly what it is. I’ve gone to see the doctor and I’m going to get some blood tests done and try to figure out what it was.”
Robson, while not at her whizz-bang best, left Flushing Meadows in 2013 satisfied with reaching the third round against Li Na, whom she had beaten at the same stage in 2012, which catapulted her into mainstream attention.
However, the weakened left wrist which would become a still greater problem for her the following year was even then an uncomfortable distraction and her return – against her compatriot Naomi Broady – was another test of her resolve.
Over two hours and 29 minutes in the warm and breezeless late afternoon sun, Robson and Broady played out a British tableau but there would be no fairytale ending for Robson this time. She had done well to even get here after years of rehab and operations on her wrist. Her last effort was a backhand that drifted long. Now it is Broady’s turn to deliver a story. Although a little erratic, she was well worth her 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 win.
“I didn’t impose myself enough in the rallies,” lamented Robson. “She is tough to play against and she serves well but I had a couple of chances and put myself in the right position and then took my foot off the pedal.”
