Dan Evans struggled to hold back the emotions during his on-court interview after beating Tommy Paul at the Eastbourne Open. The Brit progressed into the quarter-final of the event with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 victory over the world No.13, setting up a clash with Jenson Brooksby.
It’s another milestone in an impressive grass-court season so far for Evans, having previously made the round-of-16 at Queen’s earlier this month. And on the back of his latest win, the 35-year-old was overcome by emotion when quizzed about his recent showings.
He said: “To be honest, I felt good serving for the match. It was more at one love, in the second, when I started to think about the winning line, which is an error. And then I sort of went down. I just said to myself ‘enjoy this; this is what it’s about’.
“And I played much better tennis, stopped worrying about what he was doing. He started to play a bit better, and I then started to play very good when I stopped worrying about him so much. I played good tennis in the end, Again, an amazing crowd. Thanks again – you got me through.”
Evans continued, with a tear in his eye: “It is but I know I’ve done the work as well and once I’ve got the confidence that I knew the work was in the bank. A good friend said ‘if you’re ready, and the door opens, you’ll walk through it. If you’re not, you won’t’. And you know, there’s no truer word for the past few weeks, and hopefully there’s some more to come.”
While he’ll be keen to win a third ATP title at Eastbourne this week, Evans’ attention will shortly switch to the upcoming Wimbledon, where he’s appearing as a wildcard entry. Evans had previously claimed he didn’t want to be given a wildcard for the championships last year – a statement he has since gone back on.
Speaking earlier this month, he said: “Yeah, it’s all in context. I didn’t want to take a wildcard off a younger guy, but I don’t think any younger players have been ripping up stumps to knock me out of the wildcard spot. So I think I’ve got a good shot again.
“I would hope the past 15 years has given me a shot at a wildcard. Not just at Wimbledon but I think in other events here. I obviously really want to play Wimbledon. I’m the first to harp on about the wildcards. It’s not just about one week or one match. It’s about what you do 52 weeks of the year.”