Week 23 - Challenger (€42,500) - Aegon Trophy, Surbiton, UK (grass)

Jaggy1876 · Grand Slam Champion

Week 23 - Challenger (€42,500) - Aegon Trophy, Surbiton, UK (grass)

Spectator · All-time great

Getting the best of, no. But "keeping it civil" he does seem to have managed, at least initially. It's currently at 5-3 30 all with Dustin Brown serving for the set.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

First set to Brown by 6-3.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Dreddy had taken the 1st set 6-3

paulisi · Tennis legend

I'm a little worried about Evo's attitude again. I'm not sure if it is "I'm in the top 100, I expect to beat everyone below me", but I saw it at Manchester and I'm hearing it again today.

Timothy · Improver

Dan Evans is, and always has been his own worst enemy, I've never liked him as a person but his tennis, when on song, is superb.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

All fall down!

L16: (Q) Marius Copil (ROU) WR 176 defeated (1) Dan Evans WR 93 by 4 & 2

L16: (4) Bjorn Fratangelo (USA) WR 99 defeated (Q) Jonny O'Mara WR 701 by 3 & 2

L16: Luke Saville (AUS) WR 218 defeated (WC) Liam Broady WR 238 by 3-6 6-2 7-6(5)

L16: (5) Dustin Brown (GER) WR 86 defeated (WC) Ed Corrie WR 376 by 3 & 3

Jaffa · Challenger level

Evo is evo, but in with RJA. I would love to hear a first hand account though.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

It should be if I want to stay top 100 and progress I need to beat everyone around me. He will have to be tactical in the choices of tournaments he plays to stay there. Absolutely nothing wrong in being feisty if it's motivating but when counter productive it's a waste of resources. Not a good day for Evo just needs to move on.

RJA · Hall of fame

Oakland2002 wrote:
It should be if I want to stay top 100 and progress I need to beat everyone around me. He will have to be tactical in the choices of tournaments he plays to stay there. Absolutely nothing wrong in being feisty if it's motivating but when counter productive it's a waste of resources. Not a good day for Evo just needs to move on.

I think he has a great chance to stay in the top 100 for several years but, and this is a big but, it is always going to revolve around a fairly small number of tournaments where he puts in big performances. He is never going to be one of those reliable players who performs solidly week in week out. Even if we leave aside his personality his game simply isn't compatible with performing consistently. To beat top 100 players, and probably most top 200 players, he has to play high risk aggressive tennis and pulling that off week in week out is very difficult especially outside of his preferred conditions. It is not by chance that the vast majority of his best results have come indoors where you can generally play with less margin of error. He has some attributes of a good grass court player but it is never going to be the ideal surface for him, especially if the weather is anything less than perfect. He really has to be close to his best to win matches even at challenger level on the surface. Were he not British I doubt he would consider the grass season an important part of his year.

philwrig · Hall of fame

I have disagree a little RJA about grass not being a good surface for Evo, I've seen him play brilliant tennis at Nottingham, with that slice and all court game causing all sorts of problems for the opposition.

RJA · Hall of fame

philwrig wrote:
I have disagree a little RJA about grass not being a good surface for Evo, I've seen him play brilliant tennis at Nottingham, with that slice and all court game causing all sorts of problems for the opposition.

It works great when he plays someone who can't deal with slice but when he faces someone who can handle slice it is a different matter. He will always have the odd good result on grass but he has limitations on the surface.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I couldn't make it today (work reared its ugly head) but a good friend of mine was their all day, gave a blow by blow description on the phone and so this is basically their report on Dan-gate:

Copil plays well on grass, Dan looked a bit edgy from the go. Couple of slightly dodgy linecalls but not all against Dan so nothing major.

Towards the end of the first set, Copil hit a deep ball that hit the baseline and reared up rather. Dan then lost it, shouting that there was way too much chalk on the lines, that he'd complained about this already, that no one had listened, that the line was 'like a trampoline', etc. etc. He ranted rather at the umpire and also against the club, pretty sarcastic. He then used the 'f' word (not at anyone, more as a grumble, but all the spectators could hear).

Got a code violation. This sent him off into one - partly because the umpire said it was for 'a combination of factors' and Dan said that wasn't allowed.

However, net net, this seemed to blow over. Tennis resumed. All good. Dan lost the first set but playing properly, not chucking it.

Everyone assumed it was now all in the past. But....

When they sat down at the end of the set, Dan was like a dog with a flea, he wouldn't let it drop, kept going at the umpire, the referee guy then came out (don't know who called him), more mega complaints (about not much) and this is when the crowd got antsy - Copil was patiently waiting on the baseline and Dan was just ranting, about nothing anyone could quite understand.

So as he (finally) came down the main end to serve, the crowd were riled. Dan shouted something. Got a point warning. Some bloke in the crowd shouted out 'just grow up and get on with it'. Dan turned and shouted 'so you're all Romanians now?' Another bloke started shouting 'come on, Marius'.

Apparently, it was all rather ugly. Anyway, he then got the game penalty.

And seemingly the rest of the match was OK - Dan played properly (although well out of sorts) and there was nothing else to report except he lost, shook hands with Copil, not with the umpire and came off shouting 'he always wants to get involved, involved, involved' (history with that umpire?)

My mate's take was that the umpire could have handled it better. And the crowd had some real old farts who understood nothing about tennis or what is involved.

But Dan was almost looking for a way to blow up, bringing it up all over again, when it was done and there was nothing really to bring up anyway - too much chalk on a line is hardly worth getting in a stew about and just because you (and only you?) have told the club, doesn't mean they have to do anything about it. Even for the biggest Dan fan, it wasn't attractive, or warranted, or effective.

philwrig · Hall of fame

A lot of the players complaining about the state of the courts, but I obviously don't know how bad they are, and of course it is the same for everyone. Hey last year at Ilkley you didn't know whether you were going to get an ankle high bounce or one above your head, but they have apparently made big improvements, seems like Surbiton's gone the other way.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

My own view, from all the other days, is that the courts at Surbiton have been good/great.

Sure, there's been a few bad bounces, but it;s grass, after all.

I would congratulate Surbiton, frankly.

Dan's thing was about the lines, not the courts as such.

Also, I've seen a LOT of matches this week and the only two players I saw complaining about the bounce were two British players.