Week 31 - Challenger ($100,000) - Vancouver, Canada (Hard)

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

RE: Week 31 - Challenger ($100,000) - Vancouver, Canada (Hard)

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

A good performance from Dan apart from his serve which will need to improve. 11 DFs and first serve of just 40%. Reynolds' return was poor. I liked Dan's forehand, he often backed up big hits at the net.

If he serves better I think he'll have a great chabce in the final.

SMC1809 · All-time great

Clearly a few people watching tonight. Interested to know what you thought about the speed at which Dan played tonight. Not during points, but between.

thejester · Satellite level

SMC1809 wrote:
Clearly a few people watching tonight. Interested to know what you thought about the speed at which Dan played tonight. Not during points, but between.

Dan seemed to be going a little slower in between points tonight compared to his first few matches. At least, that's what I thought. I don't know how much difference it makes to him, although I would say that if he's going to go bombing around between points some more wily opponents might start playing games to slow him down and throw off his rhythm.

steven · Tennis legend

Muzz: "@Evo151216 evo breaks to go up 63 20 and shouts... Allez, allez, vamos! #multilingual"

... and later:

Evo: "@andy_murray nice one for watching.. An yes I speak many languages!!!! Natttttttttttttttt"

Muzz: "@Evo151216 I was thinking you struggle enough with english never mind giving spanish and french a go... Good luck for the final fight hard!"

RJA · Hall of fame

Muzz obviously hasn't seen much of Evo play. Allez is a frequent cry when he is on court

RJA · Hall of fame

steven wrote:
Just to recap his progress this week:

L32: Dan Evans WR 248 beat (1) Evgeny Donskoy (RUS) WR 84 (CH 65 in Jul) by 3-6 6-4 6-4
L16: Dan Evans WR 248 beat Amir Weintraub (ISR) WR 209 (CH 161 in 2012) by 6-2 3-6 6-3
QF: Dan Evans WR 248 beat (8) Olivier Rochus (BEL) WR 146 (CH 21 in 2005) by 4 & 2
SF: Dan Evans WR 248 beat (5) Bobby Reynolds (USA) WR 138 (CH 63 in 2009) by 3 & 4

In comparison when he won the Jersey challenger in 2009 he beat the following players.

L32: Colin Fleming WR 571 : 6-4, 7-5

L16: Simon Stadler (GER) WR 151 : 6-1, 6-4

QF: Stephane Robert (FRA) WR 263 : 6-3, 7-6(4)

SF: Alex Bogdanovic WR 192 : 1-6, 7-6(4), 6-4

F: Jan Minar (CZE) WR 377 : 6-3, 6-2

steven · Tennis legend

FINAL: Dan Evans WR 248 v (2) Vasek Pospisil (CAN) WR 89 (CH 85 last week)

So, Brits play Canadians (and the crowd) in both singles finals here!

Dan has played Pospisil once before, also in Canada, beating him 7-5 in the 3rd in the Canadian Open grade 1 junior event.

Maza1987 · Challenger level

havent even been following this tourny.

great surprise.

DF · Tennis legend

Congrats Dan and best of luck for the final

paulisi · Tennis legend

They don't call it British Columbia for nothing....

West Coast seems very much for the Brits liking, i'm surprised none of our better men's doubles teams entered. Maybe next year we can go for the clean sweep singles and doubles......

SMC1809 · All-time great

He speed of play was pretty quick but that always tends to be the way with Dan. He doesn't mess about on court and always wants to get on with things and tonight was a good pace without being too fast. Him playing fast isn't a problem so long as

a) He slows down when he needs to in order to regain composure

b) He doesn't let it upset him if opponents or ball boys delay him

The former is normally okay but the latter can be a bit of a worry.

-- Edited by RJA on Sunday 4th of August 2013 01:50:29 AM

I timed him at several stages throughout the match and frequently it was less than 4 seconds between the ball going dead and Evo serving again. Obviously when he wasn't near the base line when the point finished it was longer, but that 4 seconds was fairly consistent and just allowed the ball boys/girls just enough time to move out of his way.

I'm sure some of his more wily opponents will try to delay him serving to upset his rhythm. It will be interesting to see what coping mechanisms Dan has to overcome this.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

steven wrote:
Muzz: "@Evo151216 evo breaks to go up 63 20 and shouts... Allez, allez, vamos! #multilingual"

... and later:

Evo: "@andy_murray nice one for watching.. An yes I speak many languages!!!! Natttttttttttttttt"

Muzz: "@Evo151216 I was thinking you struggle enough with english never mind giving spanish and french a go... Good luck for the final fight hard!"

That really made me smile smile smile smile Nice of Andy to be supportive . . .

Didn't stay up (I'm an hour ahead at the moment) but thoroughly enjoyed reading back over all the match posts - especially given the result, of course . . .

Sounds quite a different match from the Rochus one (which I did watch).

REALLY pleased. Knew Bobby was winnable but that's not always enough of course.

Was so impressed by Dan against Olivier - Dan's good points are often noted but was really impressed by his shot selection and footwork and running down of balls and things that aren't always talked of as his strong points.

Did anyone see Pospisil play ? I saw the end of his QF and he was playing well but looked very nervous (reasonable at your home event I guess) - don't really know the guy at all . . .

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

steven wrote:
Into the top 200 he goes! (remember a few weeks ago we only had 1 Brit in the ATP top 250? - now 3 in the top 200!)

Like JoKo, Dan managed to find a way through in straight sets even without having a great serving day [...]

And both even get a mention in despatches on the Beeb's site! wink Imagine! The Beeb reporting on results in a lowly Challenger event!

philwrig · Hall of fame

Another terrific win for Evo, even during the knockup he was on his toes and looked so eager, I was confident he would play his best and that is always going to good enough against a player ranked outside the top 100.