DUBAI // There was a time, not so long ago, when headlines in the English media described Dan Evans as “the most egregious wasted talent in British tennis”.
There was a time, not so long ago, Evans, 26, did everything to prove those headlines right, indulging in his fondness for late nights, which got him stripped of his funding from the Lawn Tennis Association, the national governing body of tennis in Great Britain, twice.
Evans’ attitude frustrated countless people, including his former coach Julien Hoferlin who, in an interview with the Belgian media in 2014, said: “He makes no sacrifices for his sport. He doesn’t understand that tennis has to be his priority. For him, it’s just a brief interlude in his life.”
The Briton was ranked No 143 in the world at the time and had just lost in the opening round at Wimbledon after receiving a wild card. Twelve months later, he was not even deemed worthy of a wild card, languishing at No 772 in the world in May of 2015.
In the 20 months since, though, Evans seems to have finally realised the error of his ways and, following a string of good results, including the final in Sydney and a fourth-round appearance at the Australian Open this year where he defeated Marin Cilic for his second Top 10 win of 2017, he has now moved to up to a career-high No 44.
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“There are other things in life than just tennis and obviously had to explore them and see what they were like,” Evans said after the draw of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, where he meets German Dustin Brown in what should be an entertaining first-round clash.
“Realised they were not so good and tennis was a better option, and yeah, it’s good to work hard and the rewards are good as I am finding out now.
“Yeah, I am maturing too. You get older and obviously find out, sooner or later, you have stuff to pay for. And you got to win some matches otherwise it’s hard work. So yeah, I am enjoying it and I just want to keep doing what I am doing now.
“I’ve just worked hard and won a lot of good matches, and, sort of, carried on from where I left off from each tournament. It’s been good fun.”
In the early days of his career, Evans was seeking that “fun” elsewhere and it almost cost him his career. In 2012, the LTA decided to stop funding him because Evans failed to convince them of his commitment — to both himself and to the sport. In the following months, he was considering hanging up his boots for good because his parents were struggling to find the $30,000-plus-a-year needed to support his tennis career.
“There’s been bad things that happened, but I don’t really think back at them that much anymore,” said Evans. “It’s more now just looking ahead to each match.
“I really look forward to playing matches. They are things I really enjoy most, obviously way more than the training.
“This is I think my second 500 event so I will be looking forward to playing it. Excited to play and that’s obviously a good thing to get a win against Dustin.”
If Evans gets through that first-round match against Brown, he could run into world No 12 Gael Monfils in the second, but the Briton is not looking that far ahead. Nor does he want to make too much of his performance in 2017 so far.
“I take every tournament by its own merit,” he said. “I will just look ahead to Dustin and that’s it for me. We’ll see what happens and then if I win, the next day it’s the same.
“So there’s no big secret. I am just looking at each match at a time and I am looking for this week and this week only. And then after this week, I will go for Indian Wells. Yeah, each match and each tournament at a time is what I am just sort of concentrating on. It’s not looking ahead or anything like that. It’s just simple, simple stuff.”
arizvi@thenational.ae
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