Daniel Evans Becomes An Unexpected British Davis Cup Hero

Written by: Staff on 8th April 2013

Daniel Evans Becomes An Unexpected British Davis Cup Hero

epa02788554 Daniel Evans of Britain returns to Florian Mayer of Germany during their first round match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 21 June 2011. EPA/FELIPE TRUEBA |

Daniel Evans, ranked a lamentable world no.324 given his talents and by his own admission ‘a pretty bad tennis player’ because of his abhorrence of physical hard work and tendency to get distracted clinched Britain’s place in September’s Davis Cup World Group playoffs.

The British team under Leon Smith recovered from a 2-0 deficit after the first day of competition for the first time in 83 years, since the formative days of Fred Perry and long white trousers, to beat Russia 3-2 at Coventry’s Richo Arena.

James Ward, the son of a London taxi cab driver who this week has dropped three places to a world ranking of 217, also did his part to beat former top 20 player Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 5-7, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 after firing 20 aces.

But with world no.2 Andy Murray declaring himself unavailable for the tie because he didn’t want to interrupt his clay-court preparation after winning the Sony Open in Miami a week earlier, it was the enigmatic Evans, whose funding from the British Lawn Tennis Association was withdrawn because of his indolent attitude, that caught all the attention.

Just two days earlier, after losing to Tursunov in five sets, 22 year-old Evans admitted he knew the reason why his talent does not reflect in his ranking: ““It’s because I don’t train hard enough and don’t work hard enough day in and day out,” he said. “I just don’t do it. I’m obviously pretty bad at my job.”

Evans, who now plays almost exclusively on the third tier Futures circuit, explained what distracts him from the gym and the practice court. “There’s other things in life isn’t there?” he said. “I’m from a pretty working-class background.

“The way I’ve been brought up, I’ve always been down the squash and tennis club. I’ve got a big group of friends and not all of them are coming to Davis Cup at weekends.

“It’s difficult. It’s up to me, it’s not up to anyone else. If those people are saying come out in the evening, then I’m the idiot who goes along with it and goes and does it.

“You’ve got to realize as well, [at Davis Cup] you’re getting treated like a top ten player for the week. You stay in a decent hotel and have massages, everything’s done for you.

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: Andy Murray, British tennis news, Daniel Evans, Davis Cup, Dmitry Tursunov, James Ward, Leon Smith, Tennis News