Birmingham's Dan Evans unable to fight back at Wimbledon after early damage
Dan Evans was unable to follow in the footsteps of old friend and drinking companion Jack Grealish as he fell to a shock first round defeat at Wimbledon.
The Birmingham player, 33, watched Grealish – who he attended St Peter’s Catholic school in Solihull with – win a historic treble with Manchester City last month but could not emulate his memorable exploits against Frenchman Quentin Halys at SW19 last night
The British No.2, who recently admitted he had ‘been out with Jack a few times’ when they were younger, kicked off his All England Club clash against Halys, 26, on Monday evening, falling two sets behind.
Underdog Halys, ranked almost exactly 50 places below Evans in the world, came flying out of the blocks to stun the West Midlands player and race into a two-set lead.
But the match was cut short owing to the fading light meaning Evans, the current world No.30, was forced to take to the SW19 court once again on Tuesday.
Rain lashed down on south-west London throughout the day but after a chaotic afternoon of cancellations, the conclusion of Evans’ clash was moved to Centre Court following Andy Murray’s first round triumph – in straight sets against fellow Brit Ryan Peniston – earlier in the day.
He showed considerably greater fluency under the Wimbledon roof to rally against the former world No.61, gritting his teeth in a third-set tie-break to reduce the deficit in front of an increasingly partisan home crowd.
That handed Evans the momentum heading into the fourth but the British player, who has reached the third round at Wimbledon on three previous occasions but never progressed further, was never really able to reel Halys in.
Evans was forced to serve to stay in the match at 5-4 down but the Frenchman grabbed the crucial break to battle over the line and dash the Birmingham native’s hopes of mirroring Grealish’s magic.
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