Dan Evans shocks world number one Nowak Djokovic
British number one Dan Evans hocked and claimed the biggest win ever of his career by beating world number one Novak Djokovic in the lst 16 of the Monte Carlo Masters, breaking him in his first two service games. Evans struggled earlier on clay, but started superbly against he world number one before Djokovic fought back at the start of the second by Evans maintained his nerve and recovered to wrap up a 6-4, 7-5 win. Evans will now face world number 15 David Goffin of Belgium in his first Masters Series quarter-final.
It was Djokovic’s first defeat of 2021, in which Evans started aggressively and took advantage of some sloppy play from the 18th time Grand Slam winner.
Evans said “My game plan was to try and bring him forward and have him hit the ball low in the court. It was difficult to get to the net and I felt sometimes I was doing too much running. He kept me waiting a little bit in the changing room at the stat of the match. That got me a bit extra fired up. But I thought I did a good job to get out of my service games. He had so many break points and didn’t take them, so I was a little lucky there”.
Evans led 3-0 before Djokovic made it 3-2, but a lengthy sixth game put Evans 4-2 up. His chance in the set looked to have gone when a Djokovic break levelled it at 4-4, but another careless service game from the Serb gave the Briton hope and held the serve to take the set on his third set point.
Djokovic raced into a 3-0 lead in the second set, but Evans levelled it at 3-3 and saved a set point in the 10th game, then a dramatic double fault gave the Briton the chance to serve out for the win and he made no mistake.
“To be honest this has been one of the worst matches from my side I can recall in the last few years” Djokovic said who finished with 45 unforced errors
“It was just an awful performance. I can’t take any positives away from this match, it definitely leaves a bitter feeling exiting the court this way. He deserved to win. He was better player. He was just more focused I guess and played with a better quality in the decisive moments. He’s a a nice player to watch, not a great player to play against. Lots of talent. He’s very unpredictable with his shots. He dismantled my game”, Djokovic said.
Djokovic started and finished very poorly, and was beaten by a player who had previously won just four clay court matches at tour level in his entire career.
Evans had lost five of his six matches since winning a first ATP title in Melbourne in February.
It was Djokovic’s first defeat of 2021.