Week 2 - ATP 250 - Apia International, Sydney, Australia (hard)

greeny12 · Lower Club Player

Week 2 - ATP 250 - Apia International, Sydney, Australia (hard)

Jan · Hall of fame

Just back
BRILLIANT EVO

biggrin biggrin biggrin biggrin biggrin

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

This week keeps on getting better! biggrin

QF: Dan Evans WR 67 defeated (1) Dominic Thiem (AUT) WR 8 by 3-6 6-4 6-1

*****

SF: Dan Evans WR 67 vs Andrey Kuznetsov (RUS) WR 48 (CH = 39 last April)

The Russky took out the fourth seed, Pablo Carreño, by a similar scoreline & has blazed a similar giant-killing trail to Evo, also taking out Klizan (7) in the first round, albeit by a retirement in the third set, the highly regarded Aussie young gun, Alex de Minaur (WC). He represents a different kind of challenge, I think!

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Woohoo indeed!! Well done Dan Evans!!

Spectator · All-time great

That's one remarkable win.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

The only seeds now left in the draw are Troicki (3), who had a walkover against Kohlschreiber (5) in the QF, & Gilles Müller (6), who despatched Cuevas (2) in straight sets in the QF, & they face one another in the other semi-final...

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

As Evo commented after the match, Kuznetsov leads the H2H 1-0 having beaten Evo at Wimbledon in 2014. They are both very different players now, than 2 1/2 years ago and that was on grass, so I don't think it has any bearing on this match at all.

indiana · Tennis legend

Watch out for Laura this year by the way. I've predicted her to finish 52 places higher in her world rankings than Evo in his.

Smudge226 · Strong Club Player

What the hell...! He keeps doing this to me, Evo... I start watching and he looks out of his depth. Despondent, I get on with life and later catch up on the match and find he's turned it around or even ruddy won..
This guy drives me bonkers. I'll have to watch the recording tonight to understand how this happened, doesn't seem logical but can only assume he changed tack somehow.. In the first he just kept playing his sliced low backhand back to Thiem with no variation and I lost heart. I can only imagine he started to alter his return pattern and shake it up a bit. Can anyone explain why this match changed course so radically?

thejester · Satellite level

Yes Evo. Gutted I couldn't catch any of the match with my manager sat next to me, sneakily following the scores in a tiny little minimised window with the screen dimmed biggrin

No easy matches but what an opportunity to make a first ATP final this is.

Miriambee · Futures level

Showing Dan now on euros port though at end of 3rd set.

Smudge226 · Strong Club Player

BBC News reports Dan saying;

"I just had to hang in there," world number 67 Evans said.

"I knew I'd have to do a lot of running. I had to try to force my game on him, come forward and I did that in the end pretty well."

Sounds like he started to come to the net and shorten rallies at some point in the second set I assume. In the first he was certainly staying behind the baseline returning backhand slice returns to Thiem mostly, from what I see. Wouldn't come forward.

Anyway, over the moon for the guy, well done Dan, hard work now paying off in spades.

TMH · Futures qualifying

Is that a career-best win? I can't remember where Nishikori was ranked at the end of 2014.

The last time he made this stage of a 250 was a few months after that US Open win (and run) and when it looked like he was going to surge into the top 100. That was his last good tournament before the knee niggle that beset the rest of his 2014 and part of 2015. He's in a far better position now and regardless of the outcome tomorrow, I have far more confidence of him replicating this form in future tournaments.

Best of luck to him tomorrow.

Edit: It was 2013 that he beat Kei, beg my pardon.

-- Edited by TMH on Thursday 12th of January 2017 12:48:19 PM

stevemcqueen · Futures qualifying

There is now a short write up on the ATP website: http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/thiem-evans-troicki-muller-sydney-2017-thursday

Initially, I thought the 1-4 record against top ten players was incorrect. I checked his 2013 win at the USopen in 2013 - Kei was ranked only 12th back then.

I've often thought that the week before a GS gives lower ranked players a decent opportunity. Thiem will have been tired after his previous match and wanting to keep his powder dry for next week. Well done mate! Dan had played som ehard matched this week, I hope he can rest, rehydrate and recuperate for tomorrow.

Smudge226 · Strong Club Player

Live rankings showing Dan at 55
CH is 53