British No 1 Dan Evans STUNS world number one Novak Djokovic in straight-sets at the Monte-Carlo Masters for the biggest victory of his career to reach the quarter-finals
- Dan Evans beat Novak Djokovic 6-4 7-5 in a shock third round win in Monte-Carlo
- The British No 1 had never previously beaten a player ranked in the top-10
- But the 30-year-old reached the quarter-finals with a terrific performance
- Djokovic afterwards described his display as ‘one of the worst in many years’
Dan Evans today scored the greatest win of his career with an incredible victory over world number one Novak Djokovic at the Monte Carlo Open.
The British number one took the match 6-4 7-5 against an out of sorts of Djokovic to make the quarter finals of the main curtain raiser of the clay court season.
Playing on his least favourite surface in cold and blustery conditions, the 30 year-old Midlander produced a scarcely believable level of tennis, mixing his game up to frustrate one of the all time greats.
Dan Evans produced the best victory of his career to stun Novak Djokovic in the third round
The British number one put on a brilliant performance against a below-par Djokovic
Djokovic made an unusual amount of unforced errors but could not sustain the 3-0 lead he forged in the second set when he looked like he was reverting to type.
Evans got back to 4-4 and then missed a simple backhand at 15-30 against his opponent’s serve. At 5-4 Djokovic had a set point, but within ten minutes he had been broken again to leave Evans serving for the match into the wind.
He got a fortunate line call at 15-15 but then served it out with relatively little drama against a distinctly flat Australian Open champion.
‘My game plan was to bring him forward and get him to hit the ball when it was low in the court,’ said Evans, after becoming only the second GB player to beat a world number one on clay – usually his least favourite surface.
Evans is through to the quarter-finals of a Masters event for the first time after the superb win
‘It was difficult to get to the net and at times I felt I was doing too much running. He had a lot of break points but didn’t take them. I had tried to get on top of his second serve early and show him I wasn’t going to stand round at the back of the court.
‘He kept me waiting in the changing room at the start which was a bit annoying. It’s one and one, that’s what I was teling myself.’
‘He played fantastic tennis, difficult conditions and he coped with it so well. Djokovic was frustrated,’ said the watching Tim Henman on Amazon. ‘To beat the world number one is an amazing win.’
Djokovic said afterwards: “’He’s a nice player to watch, not so nice to play against. Clay wasn’t his surface growing up but the way he plays on clay, I think he plays in a similar quality level to what he plays on his best surfaces. He’s a very good player, no doubt about it’
‘I definitely should have done better. It’s really one of the worst performances I can remember in many years.”
Evans now faces Belgian number one David Goffin in the last eight.