Evans looks to future, not Futures

Dan Evans, pictured, was philosophical after his defeat to Tommy Robredo
1 September 2013

Dan Evans will leave America not just thinking but knowing he belongs with the world's best.

The 23-year-old from Birmingham saw his incredible US Open run brought to an end by 19th seed Tommy Robredo in the third round, but not without a fight.

Having won three qualifying matches and beaten two of the game's brightest young talents in Kei Nishikori and Bernard Tomic, it was a hugely confident Evans who took to the Louis Armstrong court.

He showed all the considerable skills he possesses and, after losing a tight first set and a one-sided second, roared back in the third.

The fourth was full of drama as Robredo, a hugely experienced former top-10 player, began to struggle physically and Evans pushed for a decider.

He had two chances to level at two sets all but could not take them and the Spaniard, one of tennis' most resilient players, came through 7-6 (8/6) 6-1 4-6 7-5 after three hours and 13 minutes.

Prior to arriving in New York, Evans' grand slam record was virtually non-existent, with two first-round qualifying wins and two first-round Wimbledon defeats as a wild card all he had achieved on the biggest stage.

He had shown in Davis Cup what he might be able to achieve with wins over much higher-ranked players, and it was the part he played in Britain's victory over Russia in April that put him on the path to living up to his talent.

Since then he has climbed from outside 300 in the rankings to 179 - he will be around 150 a week on Monday - earned his first ATP Tour wins at Queen's Club, reached back-to-back Challenger finals and collected prize money of around £85,000.

It is less than a year since Evans was forced to contemplate giving up tennis when, in his own words having wasted his money, his father Dave said he would only financially support his son if he committed fully to the sport.

Evans said: "To win two matches and then have that match shows I'm not a Futures (Tour) player, I'm probably better than a Challenger player as well.

"It's pretty easy for everyone to say you should be doing this or you could be doing this, but until you do it you don't know that you can do it.

"I've done it now. I can go away with different targets. It's changed my mindset quite a lot. I've beaten a lot of good players on this trip."

Evans has started slowly in all his matches and his serve was broken at the first opportunity by Robredo.

But the soon-to-be British number two looked confident and he hit back straight away.

The rest of the first set went with serve, Evans again demonstrating one of his big strengths with excellent play every time the Spaniard did threaten.

He saved two set points at 4-5 and then two more in the tie-break to get to 6-6 before over-hitting two forehands.

The second set was all Robredo, Evans looking tired and committing a lot of errors, but he regrouped in the third and got his reward.

He timed it perfectly to break for the first time in the match at 4-4 and served out the set to love with an ace.

Evans had a spring back in his step and it was 31-year-old Robredo, who came back from two sets to love down in three successive matches at the French Open, who began to look weary, calling for the trainer to have his thigh massaged.

Evans was doing all the attacking and he broke for 3-2, was promptly broken back but forged ahead again.

He served for the set at 5-4 and should have taken it but a big double fault and a wild forehand on set points cost him, and Robredo took advantage of the momentum shift to clinch victory.

Evans was philosophical afterwards, saying: "I'm not that disappointed. You've just got to take that match as experience.

"In the end I just rushed a bit. When I was up 40-15 (serving for the fourth set) I felt like I was going to win the match. Then the momentum turned a bit and it sort of ran away from me.

"I don't know what happened. I served a terrible double fault and then the forehand I think was one of the first I'd missed in the set. I didn't feel tight at all. I think I just missed an easy ball.

"I was definitely the fresher. I felt pretty good. I'm pretty tired now, I'll sleep well tonight. My body's a bit sore but I didn't feel there was no chance I could play a fifth set, I felt good to play another set.

"I grew into the match as it went on. His game plan was obviously to get it up to my backhand and hit a lot of forehands but in the end he was doing a lot of the running. I got on top of that. The 40-15 and 40-30 points may stay in my head for a few days but it's happened now."

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