British tennis star Dan Evans branded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina’s complaint to the ATP Tour as “pathetic.” World No. 19 Davidovich Fokina was upset at the scheduling of his Canadian Open match with Jakub Mensik, insisting that they should play their second-round tie later in the day.
Davidovich Fokina launched a blistering attack on the association because his match was scheduled to take place at 11am (4pm BST) local time in Toronto, an hour and a half before any players took to the court for their respective matches.
“Today, I want to share my disappointment and frustration with ATP,” Davidovich Fokina said. “Tomorrow, every match starts at 12:30 except ours, which has been scheduled at 11:00.
“We are staying one hour away from the club, which means we have to wake up extremely early to arrive in good condition. We have asked for a change, but the answer was that everything has already been sold, including tickets and TV rights.
“Once again, it’s clear that players are not taken into consideration. Today, it happens to others, tomorrow it’s me, and from the day after, all matches return to 12:30. There are plenty of available courts, and yet we are the only ones playing at 11:00.
“The ATP always promises they will fix things, but nothing ever changes. This is not the first time it has happened, and when you are inside, you realise it’s not as great as it looks from the outside.”
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Evans shared Davidovich Fokina’s statement and had a brutal message for the Spanish star, writing: “Wake up and play. The world wakes up and works 9-5, even 8-6, pathetic.”
The Brit did not appear to be too impressed with Davidovich Fokina’s open letter to the ATP, as someone who knows him well as a result of their two matches against one another. They both have one win against each other. The most recent came at the 2022 Qatar Open, which the Spaniard won in straight sets.
Evans is not competing at the Canadian Open, having won two games at the Citi Open in preparation for the upcoming US Open, before defeat to Corentin Moutet in Washington.
After beating Zizou Bergs and 13th seed Alex Michelsen in his first competition since going out to Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon, frustrations boiled over for Evans against the fiery Frenchman.
Trailing 1-1, 0-30, in the second set, Evans could be heard shouting, “It’s gone. It’s gone. No chance” to his coaching team.
“It was gone in the first game when you guys didn’t show up. You have to be really focused on a day like today.”
The first set went 6-2 to Moutet, before Evans recovered to force a tiebreak, which went his opponent’s way.