Dan Evans beaten 6-4 6-4 6-4 by Thanasi Kokkinakis in first round of French Open; Brit says his performance was "shocking" but admits he was "thrown" by foot-fault call in the second set; Stefanos Tsitsipas sees off Jiri Vesley in four sets to reach round two
Monday 29 May 2023 10:35, UK
Dan Evans hit out at a foot-fault call that "threw him" after he was knocked out in the first round of the French Open following a straight-sets defeat to Thanasi Kokkinakis, a result that leaves just two Brits left in the singles draw.
British No 2 Evans, ranked 25th in the world and seeded No 20 for this event, was beaten 6-4 6-4 6-4 by world No 108 Kokkinakis on the opening day of the Grand Slam at Roland Garros.
The 33-year-old appeared to have turned his match with Kokkinakis around in the second set when he led 4-1 but, at 30-0 in the next game, he was foot-faulted for his foot crossing the centre line and lost four points in a row.
Evans hurled his water bottle to the floor in annoyance, earning a code violation, and did not win another game in the set, with the Brit making his frustration at the call clear after the match.
He said: "Disruptive, wrong, a few other things you could say about it. Once again, the players are held responsible and the umpires and line judges are not held responsible. I obviously knew it was a rule but I tend to know where my feet are.
"It just totally threw me where I was then serving from. It was difficult from then on. I lost all trust in where my feet were. It's a very minor thing, but it became a pretty big thing in my head.
"If they're going to call that foot fault, it shouldn't be from 35 metres away, from fence to fence through a net. That's not the reason I lost, but I was right in the match at that point."
Evans' compatriots Cameron Norrie and Jack Draper will be in action over the next couple of days in Paris, at a tournament Andy Murray withdrew from in order to prioritise the grass-court season.
There will be no British presence in the women's draw.
Emma Raducanu is absent following ankle and wrist surgery and none of her countrywomen advanced through qualifying, with Harriet Dart and Katie Boulter among those beaten.
Evans - who has now lost five of his six first-round matches at the French Open - had been critical of British tennis this week, saying Raducanu's US Open win in 2021 had "papered over the cracks".
Evans had given himself a chance by breaking Kokkinakis - the player beaten by Murray from two sets down in the early hours of the morning at the Australian Open in January - to pull himself back to 4-4 in the third set.
But he then dropped serve again before Kokkinakis closed out victory to secure a second-round meeting with either 2015 champion Stanislas Wawrinka or Albert Ramos Vinolas.
Evans added: "I've been very poor in the big tournaments this year. I had an incredibly kind draw in Australia and I came through a few matches, but I've been poor in the Masters. I said the other day there's some soul-searching. There will be plenty of that.
"I've got to get on and try and get my game in a good spot. It's shocking how I played today. The frustrating thing is I'm playing well in practice and then not putting it on the court. I'll keep going, trying, and get back practising. It's a hard sport. That's the bottom line."
Fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, the Roland Garros runner-up to Novak Djokovic in 2021, took more than three hours to dispatch of Jiri Vesely 7-5 6-3 4-6 7-6 (9-7) and had to save four set points that would have taken the match to a decider.
Tsitsipas, who was also beaten by Djokovic in the final of the Australian Open earlier this year, said after defeating Vesely: "I said to myself there's no chance this is going to a fifth set.
"Jiri was a difficult obstacle. He gave me a hard time and I am happy I overcame it in such a fashion. The win is very important for me. I felt at times I was not going to the ball, I was staying still. When I made that switch, I took charge and won the match."
Seventh seed Andrey Rublev also needed four sets to overcome Laslo Djere 6-1 3-6 6-3 6-4.
