Week 45 - Challenger ($50,000) - Knoxville, TN, USA (indoor hard)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

RE: Week 45 - Challenger ($50,000) - Knoxville, TN, USA (indoor hard)

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Saw the last few games - very well done, Dan.

If only he had taken his game seriously years ago. . .

Topemp · Strong Club Player

"A Brit has crashed the American party at Knoxville, and unsurprisingly it's Dan Evans!"

Dan holds with two solid points on serve for 6-4 7-6 (4) in a very high- quality win, and I stand by my (much ridiculed) this is new Dan!

Allez!! Come on Dan, you're the man!

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

A very close match! Dan had to save a couple of set points to get to the TB. Bjorn's DFs were his undoing - he served loads. Overall, a great spectacle. Congrats to Dan and good luck tomoorw

paulisi · Tennis legend

Great win, but Dan really had to fight as his first serve went missing and his volleying was terrible.

His return of serve was excellent as was his back court play, but he needs to tidy up the service and volleying if he wants to progress further.

Priesty · Challenger level

Yay Evo!! biggrin biggrin

Could this hopefully get him into AO qualies?

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

QF: Jared Donaldson (USA) WR 140 defeated Liam Broady WR 312 by 4 & 4

QF: Dan Evans WR 271 defeated Bjorn Fratangelo (USA) WR 130 by 6-4 7-6(4) biggrin

*****

SF: Jared Donaldson (USA) WR 140 vs Dan Evans WR 271

Topemp · Strong Club Player

Priesty wrote:
Yay Evo!!
Could this hopefully get him into AO qualies?

Yes, if he doesn't win another game he's #233, and I'd say that makes him a virtual certainty for AO qualies.

Priesty · Challenger level

Cheers Topemp smile

RJA · Hall of fame

First time I have seen Dan play in a couple of months but it looks he has spent a lot of time in the gym. He appears to have added a bit of muscle all over but especially in his legs. He has never exactly been in bad shape but he also never given the impression that he has pushed himself as hard as possible when it comes to physical training. If that has changed then hopefully it will benefit his game and it would be a good sign of him showing a greater level of commitment.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

It would be hard to crticise Evos attitude this year, the fact that he was bothered enough to compete in the WC play off for Wimbledon qualifying spoke volumes.

In 2014 he was obviously beaten up and I think on reflection perhaps got a bit of undue stick on the board. The unavoidable dip in rankings may well of focused the mind and it would be fabulous if Dan got into really tip top physical shape for the next few years.

I feel we underestimate how important it is to be healthy ie playing for at least 6 months or more without limitation to establish a baseline of tennis fitness on which to build and do that little bit more turning close games into wins.

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Friday 13th of November 2015 11:36:52 PM

TMH · Futures qualifying

Excellent stuff from Dan, some impressive wins this week.

Great to see Liam get a few good wins under his belt too.

indiana · Tennis legend

Excellent from Evo

He has enough history to understandably often not be given the benefit of the doubt by some.

What very few doubt is his talent and potential to be a top 100 player. Be great to see that realised in the coming years.

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

The Jared and Dan show starts at 10.00 local which is 15:00 GMT. Should be a good match!

Spectator · All-time great

Would very much like to see an Evans v Tiafoe final.