Dan Evans had arrived at the US Open racked with doubt about his physical shape after catching Covid-19 in the summer, but after four hours and three minutes spent battling for his life on court, not only did he offer a reflection of the work he has undertaken to rebuild his fitness so quickly, but he gave a full exhibition of his spirit.
After falling down two sets to love against Alexei Popyrin, a 22-year-old Australian with huge weapons and an even bigger future, Evans masterminded a tremendous escape in a high quality match to win 4-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(1) and reach the fourth round of the US Open for the first time.
It is only the second time in Evans’ career that he has recovered from two sets down and in doing so he has also reached the last 16 at a grand slam tournament for the second time. His reward is a clash with Daniil Medvedev, the world No 2, in a match sure to be on one of the biggest courts.
As an exhausted Evans reflected afterwards, he spoke about his determination to erase the frustration from his previous third round loss at Wimbledon: “I wanna do well in all the tournaments but at Wimbledon I didn’t play a great match in the third round,” he said. “My focus was really on the third round here, once I got here it was easy to put in a good performance today. Listen, I could have lost that match pretty easily and I had a great effort regardless so I’m proud of what I’ve done.”
Evans had arrived in the third round with questions surrounding his fitness after retiring in the third set of his doubles match on Thursday with countryman Lloyd Glasspool, but it seemed far from Evans’ mind as he established an early 4-2 lead.
As the set endured, however, Popyrin found a rhythm on return and began to play destructive tennis with minimal errors, dominating with his serve and forehand. From 2-4 down, Popyrin won eight of the next nine games to establish a 6-4, 4-1 lead before eventually taking a two-set lead. Such was his dominance, Evans had struck only three unforced errors yet he found himself down two sets.
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But Evans’ energy never abated and he remained unusually calm as he searched for solutions. He was finally able to get into a Popyrin service game at 2-2 in the third set, sealing the break with a smooth backhand lob winner.
Evans methodically began to disrupt the Australian with his varied arsenal of shots; surprise serve and volley attempts, sickly sweet hands at the net and an array of backhand passing shots. He broke immediately at the start of the fourth set and then emerged from a topsy-turvy set, with five total breaks between them, to take it.
Both men arrived in the fifth set determined to bring their best. As both played well at the exact same time, their contrasting styles collided in a number of outlandish points in front of a raucous crowd as they reached the final set tie-break. From the very beginning of the tie-break, it was Evans who felt the moment and seized control. At 1-1, he pulled off an absurd backhand smash winner, which he immediately followed with a delicate drop volley winner off a difficult low ball. As the momentum carried him forward, he marched through the tie-break to seal an essential win.
Over the past couple of years, as Evans has firmly established himself in the top 30 and as a perennial seeded player, he has curiously struggled at the bigger tournaments. He opened the year by falling in the first round of both the Australian Open and French Open, and until Wimbledon he had not even reached the last 32 since 2019. No more. By surviving Popyrin, a match that could have fallen to either player and was decided by the narrowest of margins, Evans crossed a mental boundary and took a clear step forward.
There will be time to reflect on what he needs to do to have a chance against the second best player in the world, Medvedev, but in the immediate aftermath of the encounter all Evans’ intentions were clear: “I won’t think about that too much just yet,” he said. “I want to lie down. It’s been a difficult day. I’m just happy.”
