SF: (1) David Rice & Sean Thornley WR 373 defeated (4) Miles Bugby & Josh Goodall WR 1240 by 3 & 2

Spectator wrote:

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I sometimes wonder whether we should be thrilled that Dan Evans occasionally overachieves rather than being frustrated that he often doesn't do so well.

Was really struck, when I went back over his junior career after the comments comparing him with Mr Golding. It was a good junior career -- top 20 year end, one G1 singles, a couple of Slam QFs -- and at the time much was made of it. But if people are saying that Golding -- with his GS singles win, top 3 year end, two GS doubles finals, Youth Olympics doubles gold, slew of G1/GA singles and doubles finals/wins, etc. ... and his greater size and power -- "may" make it into the top 100, why should we expect Dan Evans to be much more highly ranked than he currently is? If we compared the people who had similar junior accomplishments to Mr Evans, would we find on the whole that they'd done much better than he has? (Open to being shown that we would!) It's great that he does sometimes play "above his ranking" on big occasions ... but maybe not something we should expect him to be able to do all the time.

Spoken from ignorance ... so happy to be contradicted!

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To me, if you quite clearly show you can play at a higher level on quite a number of occasions over the last few years then some of his worse results ( including hammering in sets and indeed sometimes matches by much lower ranked players ) must leave him open to huge questioning.

You don't just produce some of these much better performances by accident. He should be producing these. or at least close to to these, much more regularly.

indiana wrote:

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Spectator wrote:

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I sometimes wonder whether we should be thrilled that Dan Evans occasionally overachieves rather than being frustrated that he often doesn't do so well.

Was really struck, when I went back over his junior career after the comments comparing him with Mr Golding. It was a good junior career -- top 20 year end, one G1 singles, a couple of Slam QFs -- and at the time much was made of it. But if people are saying that Golding -- with his GS singles win, top 3 year end, two GS doubles finals, Youth Olympics doubles gold, slew of G1/GA singles and doubles finals/wins, etc. ... and his greater size and power -- "may" make it into the top 100, why should we expect Dan Evans to be much more highly ranked than he currently is? If we compared the people who had similar junior accomplishments to Mr Evans, would we find on the whole that they'd done much better than he has? (Open to being shown that we would!) It's great that he does sometimes play "above his ranking" on big occasions ... but maybe not something we should expect him to be able to do all the time.

Spoken from ignorance ... so happy to be contradicted!

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To me, if you quite clearly show you can play at a higher level on quite a number of occasions over the last few years then some of his worse results ( including hammering in sets and indeed sometimes matches by much lower ranked players ) must leave him open to huge questioning.

You don't just produce some of these much better performances by accident. He should be producing these. or at least close to to these, much more regularly.

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Further to this it is obvious when watching him play that he has skills on a tennis court that easily exceed many players of similar ranking to him. For me his major problems are failure to concentrte and a lack of motivation when playing "lesser players". In fairness to him his mental failings do seem to frustrate him just as much as those of us who follow his career. When he played Pauffley in Nottingham a few weeks back he was down a break in the second set, broke back for 4-4 and then played a stinker of a game to be broken again. He responsed by shouting at himslef "Evo, I just cannot get my head around you". I thought it very apt! He did go on to win that set 7-5

Knittel also rears his ugly head in the doubles:

Final:  (1) David Rice & Sean Thornley WR 373 vs (2) Laurynas Grigelis & Bastian Knittel (LTU/GER) WR 546

NotAClue wrote:

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I've always thought Evans' primary failing is very obvious - on court he likes to show off.

He's not good enough to get away with it except against the regulars on the GB scene.
I suggest this is why he stays where he is, comfortable. Usually able to convince the watching public and perhaps himself a little bit, in at least one or two matches an event, just how talented he is - look at the shot I'm playing, ta dah! - he sometimes needs a fanfare.

He's often entertaining to watch, but it's no way to maximise your potential.

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While I do try and respect everyone's right to their opinion I honestly think this is total bollocks. I watched Dan play on seven occasions over the summer and I can't recall him losing a single point because he was showing off. I would never deny that he has a degree of arrogance and egotism about him, or that he doesn't enjoy pulling out a spectaculor winner, but I really think that you have completely misunderstood him. The problem he has is not that he is comfortable at this level but that he has a bored indifference to matches against opponents that he should beat. If he wanted to show off then there is no point playing British futures where most matches are watched by just 1 or 2 spectators. There are plenty of things that Evo can be legitimately criticised for but I honestly think you have completely missed the mark.

In any event his last 5 events have been SF, W, SF, W, W so we probably shouldn't be too critical over one bad result.