Dan Evans leaves Melbourne a loser and a winner – waiting for the call to help Great Britain in the Davis Cup tie against Canada in Ottawa next week, and probably unaware that his imminent rise through the rankings could carry him to a seeding at Wimbledon in June.
That would be as much as he deserves after what he described, after his defeat by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the fourth round on Sunday night, as “the best week of my life.”
He could look back on victories over two top-10 players – Dominic Thiem in Sydney the previous week, then the seventh seed and former US Open champion Marin Cilic in the second round here – followed by a brave, doomed effort against Tsonga, the world No12, with immense pride.
“I need to maybe get a bit fitter,” he confessed after fading against Tsonga, who closed out their match, 6-7, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4. “He’s really physical, gets to every ball. I was flagging pretty much after the first set. My body was sore. I’ve still come a long ways from where I was last year.”
Evans will be world No 45 on Monday, and that will gain him direct entry to Indian Wells and Miami on the American hardcourt swing. If he does well there, he could be among the seeds at Wimbledon.
“I was a bit worried about the start of the year,” he said. “I just needed to get some points on the board pretty quickly. I have a lot coming off. It was a goal to be in Miami and Indian Wells. Obviously I’ve done that now. It’s a bit of a weight off my shoulders.”
He was due to fly home on Monday, and will hope he is in the mix when Great Britain’s Davis Cup captain Leon Smith names the squad soon. “I just want to go home now, to hide away for a bit. It will be good to see everybody. I haven’t seen my mum for a while. Then I’ll fly to Canada on Saturday for Davis Cup.”
If Andy Murray is up for the cup, the second singles slot will be between Evans and Kyle Edmund, who went out in the second round here.
“I don’t know. It’s entirely up to Leon, isn’t it? Kedders [Edmund], he had an amazing back end to the last year. It’s a good situation for us both to be in if Andy plays. I’m guessing that’s a pretty large ‘if’.”
As for his future on the Tour, Evans says he is done with smaller tournaments. “I played some great players this week on some good courts. That’s the main reason I play tennis, to get that sort of buzz. Nothing else can give us that. I’m looking forward to the whole year playing those bigger tournaments week in, week out. It’s what I wanted to do. I don’t plan on dropping down to play in any challengers.”
That’s good news for Evans, and for British tennis.
