Stan Wawrinka beats Dan Evans to reach US Open fourth round
Sunday 4 September 2016 08:29, UK
Dan Evans wasted a match point as his US Open came to an end with a five-set third-round defeat to Stan Wawrinka.
After Andy Murray had joined Kyle Edmund in the last-16 earlier in the day, Evans had looked well placed for the biggest result of them all against the world No 3.
Producing the performance of his life, he led the two-time Grand Slam champion by two sets to one and had match point in the fourth-set tie-breaker only to see Wawrinka save his skin before closing out the set.
The third seed than ran away with the final set as Evans began to feel the pace and Wawrinka survived a huge scare to set up a showdown with Nick Kyrgios or Illya Marchenko.
But Evans can be proud of his efforts. Having never previously reached the last-16 of a Grand Slam, he came within inches of becoming Britain's third man into the second week.
A single break of serve was enough for Evans to claim the opening set, but that did not portray the drama that was to follow in the latter stages as the match ticked into a fourth hour.
Wawrinka levelled by taking the second set, again a solitary break enough to do the damage and level up, but world No 64 Evans was not to be outdone.
The British No 2 had been brilliant in beating Alexander Zverev in round two but took his game to another level against Wawrinka, claiming the third-set tie-break to move to the brink of his first victory over a top 10 player.
A thrilling fourth set was to prove the deciding factor as the pair traded a couple of early breaks before holding serve throughout to take the match into a second successive tie break, which proved pivotal.
Evans stole the early initiative with the mini-break at 3-1, but with the pair trading twice more in the mini-break stakes, it was under the closing New York night sky that the crucial stages took place.
Evans put away an overhead smash and the defensive effort from Wawrinka landed long handing Evans a match point on the Swiss star's serve. But Wawrinka dug deep to put away a volley at the net only to go on and waste a couple of set points of his own.
Evans missed another great chance to set up a chance of a match point but Wawrinka did not look back, producing a brilliant, brave, kicking second serve at eight-all that was to set up the closing stages of the breaker which the 31-year-old sealed 10-8.
With Evans visibly tiring and his leg cramping up, Wawrinka showed little mercy, ruthlessly moving the 26-year-old from Birmingham around the court and moving into a 4-0 lead.
There was a brief flurry from Evans, who held serve and then, spurred on by a perceived injustice at being denied a medical time-out, he broke the Swiss in the sixth game but it served only to delay the inevitable as Wawrinka broke straight back before closing out the match.
