Express. Home of the Daily and Sunday Express. HOME News Royal Showbiz & TV Sport Comment Finance Travel Entertainment Life & Style Football Tennis Transfer news F1 Boxing UFC Cricket Rugby Other Golf NFL Racing NBA Dan Evans’ friends kept the celebrations going deep into the night as the Brit won the biggest title of his career in Washington. 22: 46, Mon, Aug 7, 2023 | UPDATED: 23: 39, Mon, Aug 7, 2023
Dan Evans’ friends kept a bar open to watch his Washington win (Image: Getty)
Dan Evans revealed that one of his friends kept their bar open to watch him win the biggest title of his career. The Brit came into Washington on a seven-match losing streak and managed to string together five victories to lift the Washington trophy and reach a new career-high ranking of No 21.
Evans picked up his second career title and first of the season on Sunday after a three-month drought without winning a single match at tour level. The 33-year-old made the semi-final of the Barcelona Open back in April where he lost to Carlos Alcaraz and failed to win another match until last week.
The British No 2 finally snapped his streak when he defeated Gregoire Barrere from a set down in his opening round and he went on to reach the final, ousting world No 10 Frances Tiafoe en route. His run ended with a 7-5 6-3 victory over Tallon Griekspoor to win the biggest tournament of his career, an ATP 500.
After the match, Evans said he had already been chatting with his friends back home despite the time difference leaving his match going late in the UK. “I’m hearing from friends that haven’t had a lot to celebrate lately,” the newly-crowned Mubadala Citi DC Open champion said.
Dan Evans picked up the biggest title of his career (Image: Getty)
And his friends had been taking the celebrations seriously, as Evans revealed that they went out to celebrate multiple match wins while one friend kept their bar open late with the final finishing at around 2am UK time. He continued: “They have gone out the last three nights.
“One of our friends has a bar, so they kept that open. I’m sure they’ll have a few drinks still now.” After ending his losing streak in the first round, the world No 21 also explained how he tried to stay in the present and not get ahead of himself as the tournament progressed and the wins kept coming.
“Yeah, you try not to let emotions get in the way when you’re in the tournament, and I was, you know, confident after the second round that I was playing well, but I had to keep telling myself it was match by match and not so long ago I wasn’t playing great,” Evans added.
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Dan Evans previously hadn’t won a tour-level match since the Barcelona Open in April (Image: Getty)
“It was a good effort mentally to just stay in the present and keep, you know, fighting for each point, and I did a great job of that this week.” Having failed to win a match from the end of April to the end of July, he also admitted that some of the defeats had been close.
Evans said: “I mean, it was really only the grass I didn’t play well. You know, I played well in Barcelona on the clay, and then I had some rough matches which I didn’t get the best out of. I lost in three a few times or tight matches.
“Then, yeah, I was playing well and I just couldn’t get over the line. That’s where you sort of lean on your team to, you know, keep you working hard and training and practising hard. You know, it’s especially good to get the outcome I got this week, but, you know, I said to myself once I got into the semis that that was a good effort and then I sort of reset and, you know, wanted to then win the tournament.”
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