Wimbledon 1st round: D Evans v N Davydenko

Guid007 · Strong Club Player

RE: Wimbledon 1st round: D Evans v N Davydenko

James · Satellite level

What did everyone think of Dan's performance?

Personally I was reasonably impressed. He seemed comfertable rallying with Davydenko (unlike a lot of lower ranked Brits who seem to struggle technically from the back of the court) but was lacking the killer trigger shot on a consistent basis. However when watching him I didn't get the feeling that he was going to flop a shot into the net unexplainably as often as I do when watching some other Brits.

I hope that he doesn't get frustrated that he hasn't broken through to the top tier yet and keeps his head down because I think that he will be a slightly late developer, late being 21 or 22 (similar to Henman). I think that the fact that he has no major weaknesses and is technically proficient are his biggest strengths and should see him eventually into the top 100.

The only tiny gripe would be his on court stubborness. He needs a lot more. Rather than always thinking about what his opponent is upto I would love to see him concentrating on his own game and going with plays that he feels comfortable with, i.e a short slice and net approach. But in general Dan just needs to take everything up a level, a process that should happen with time, discipline and hard work.

-- Edited by James on Tuesday 23rd of June 2009 01:11:13 PM

The Hoose · Satellite level

I was reasonably impressed too - there is potential there for him to become a decent player if he makes steady progress for the next couple of years. Gut feeling, but it looks to me like he could be a fairly mediocre top 50 player (someone like Benneteau) or a Boggo, depending on how he applies himself.

-- Edited by The Hoose on Tuesday 23rd of June 2009 01:13:29 PM

James · Satellite level

Yes, for some reason I kept thinking that he reminded me a of a product of the FFT! A player that doesn't burst onto the scene at 18 but has a solid career hovering at around 50-150 (with one or two jumps into the top 50 after a big tournament or two) due to a solid and confident game and no 'smack me in the face' weaknesses.

That's Dan's career planned out then!

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Decent enough effort from Dan but in the end he just didn't have enough to hurt Davydenko, who unfortunately seemed to be interested in Wimbledon this year.

Just needs a bit of work and he can move up the rankings nicely, but needs to start finding some consistancy in his performances and almost all of his points this year have come from Jersey.

Vandenburg · Futures level

1st of all lets not say evans was out of his depth against davy, as on grass denkos ranking is around 80 i think, so he always had a chance.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Vandenburg wrote:

1st of all lets not say evans was out of his depth against davy, as on grass denkos ranking is around 80 i think, so he always had a chance.

And Dan is ranked over 300. Your point was?

I thought Dan put up a pretty good show, a darn sight better than against Malisse last year, and Donkey is certainly a better player than Xavier, grass or no. I still have hopes for him as a top 100 player in the future, if he keeps working to improve.

Vandenburg · Futures level

yeh madeline so what im sayin is that he got beaten by a challanger level player(on grass),so i dont really think it was a good effort, joe average.

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Davydenko's a better player on a grass court than people give him credit for. He's reached the fourth round of Wimbledon in the past so cannot be a complete muppet on the surface, it's just half the time he doesn't seem to care about playing on grass.

Guess he's looked at his draw this year and decided to try, as having Crivoi up next, and then Berdych, who he has something like a 9-0 record against, he's got a great chance of reaching round four.

steven · Tennis legend

Evo interview: http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/news/interviews/2009-06-23/200906231245764330484.html - snippets include:

Q. Was it enjoyable, though, to get it under your belt?

"Yeah, I mean, it's if you look at it on paper, it's horrible for me. He hits quite hard. It could have been a nasty first round, like score line. But I think I did well out there, you know?"

Q. What's happened to you in the last couple of months? Your form really took off sort of until it seems like midApril you struggled a bit.

"I went to Turkey after Jersey, and I rolled my ankle. And then I got ill with like the flu sort of thing. And I've been ill a few times since then. That's it, really. If you look, I have not really played that much. That's it. There's no real like "

Q. Does it inspire you playing someone like that, or does it make you think I'll never get there?

DANIEL EVANS: No, and that's the thing. If I had come out and lost 1, 2 and 1 and had no chance in any rallies or the same score line and had no chance in any rallies, then I'd have been a bit, oh, God.

But it's achievable. I'm not going to sit here and say I'm going to get to that, but it's easily achievable. He makes the same errors as I make, he just doesn't do as many.

In a way it's good what happened today. Obviously I lost, which is not good. But it's good what happened to find out what the level is.

Q. Did he say anything to you afterwards?

DANIEL EVANS: No. I mean, I don't know how good his English is. I'm not sure about his personality. biggrin

Q. What are you going to spend it on, anything?

DANIEL EVANS: I don't know. Probably not a lot. I'll just keep it, rainy day. I might not be a tennis player soon, might be stacking shelves.

There's actually a lot of quite revealing, interesting stuff in there as well - he does talk a lot wink but what he says makes quite a lot of sense.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Good read. Dan's a very interesting person.

Ratty · County player

Rule 1 of interviews with the Press: Be very boring, and never try to be flippant or make jokes. They will come back to haunt you, FOREVER - eg Andy Murray's quip about the England football team.

(Unless you are Marat Safin, of course ...)

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

I set the recorder to record BBC 1 and ive just found that i got some of Evo's match! He hits his forehand very cleanly, not a colossal shot but it shoots through the court quite well - i can see the squash influence from the way he lines up hit the ball. His single hander is very nice, he hits that cleanly, and he varies it with the slice too. His serve is useful, not a big serve but capable of picking up some cheap points, certainly not a "money for old rope". He also has some nice feel on the court with his returns and he moves well. I would like him to not play so deep behind the baseline on grass though, it gives his opponent too much time.

The Hoose · Satellite level

Ratty wrote:

Rule 1 of interviews with the Press: Be very boring, and never try to be flippant or make jokes. They will come back to haunt you, FOREVER - eg Andy Murray's quip about the England football team.

(Unless you are Marat Safin, of course ...)

Just to prove Ratty's point, here's the start of the Mirror's "article"

King of the bottlers Alex Bogdanovic became Wimbledon's biggest all-time loser as the Brits equalled their worst wipe-out in history.

On a day of crying shame which left the Union Jack at half-mast, Anne Keothavong broke down in tears after her shock defeat by Patricia Mayr as the strawberry fields of SW19 became a showcase for Britain's Rot Talent.

And teenager Daniel Evans, beaten in straight sets by Russia's No.12 seed Nikolay Davydenko, summed up the prevailing mood of desolation when he admitted: "I might not be a tennis player soon - I might be stacking shelves."

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

The Mirror clearly not one to let actual facts get in the way of a good "let's bash the brits story then"

And Count... tell Boggo to sue for this as Boggo is not Wimbledon's biggest all-time loser. There's another player who was 0-9 at Wimbledon in his career and someone else who is also 0-8 in their career, and there are players such as Christophe Rochus who have lost more matches than Boggo at Wimbledon (although have won one match along the way).

If the Robert Dee tale tells us anything it's that if you make a slight error and make a player out to be a lot worse than they are, they've got a good chance of winning the case.

If Robert Dee could get an apology from the media for being called the "worst professional player" or whatever it was when he wasn't, surely that is on the same level as Boggo being called Wimbledon's biggest all-time loser, when in fact he isn't?