The prospect of Dan Evans playing Andy Murray in the semi-final of a slam had probably not occurred to anyone outside Birmingham until day five of this Australian Open, but there is insurrection in the air. Against all odds and forecasts, anything seems possible.
Evans, who used to get homesick moving beyond Spaghetti Junction, is reaching out across wider tennis vistas and creating the sort of magic that impossible dreams are made of, while Murray is forging towards what he has every right to believe will be his first title in Melbourne. If they meet along the way, it would be a match to savour.
Murray’s quick 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 win over Sam Querrey in swirling winds in the Hisense Arena on Friday afternoon was no surprise, but it was asking a lot of Evans to beat the home favourite Bernard Tomic in front of an openly hostile crowd on the same court that evening. That he did so with the cheekiest of flourishes in a crazy denouement, 7-5, 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-3) in just under three hours, added to the sense of theatre that has enveloped Melbourne Park in the wake of Novak Djokovic’s shock defeat by the world No117, Denis Istomin.
If Evans gets past Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Sunday in his first visit to the fourth round of a major, he will then have to beat either the former champion Stan Wawrinka or the unseeded Italian Andreas Seppi in the quarter-finals to get to Murray – providing Roger Federer or Kei Nishikori do not intervene in the top quarter of the draw. Evans had match point against Wawrinka before the Swiss prevailed on his way to beating Djokovic in the final of the US Open last year, but he has not played Tsonga, Seppi or Murray. However, he has spent many hours with the world No1 in their Davis Cup campaigns for Great Britain.
Evans has beaten two top 10 players in a week: Dominic Thiem in Sydney, then the former US Open champion Marin Cilic in the second round here, and his win over Tomic, who is 21 places ahead of him in the rankings at 27, was another fine scalp. Evans showed extraordinary grit and no little nous in outwitting the Australian in a tense match that several times threatened to go against him. Against a backdrop of constant abuse from small pockets of the crowd, he prevailed.
Evans revealed later: “There was a guy just screaming at me, ‘Give him hell, Bernie!’ There’s nothing on that tennis court which could be hell, is there? What happened in Melbourne today is hell.”
He was referring to the deaths of four people, including a young child, as well as 20 injuries to other pedestrians when a crazed motorist rampaged through packed streets in the heart of Melbourne that afternoon.
It put mere tennis firmly into context, as did Evans’s reflections on the absence of his long-time coach, Julien Hoferlin, who died of cancer last year at 49. He looked to the heavens at the end in memory of his good friend.
“Quite a lot of people reminded me about Jules this week,” he said, the tears welling. “It’s a shame he’s not here. I’m sure he’s watching somewhere.”
On a lighter note, he spoke about a row he had with the former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen, who blanked him on a Melbourne street this week. “He didn’t want me to have my picture with him. That was it. I think he was the worse for wear. That was his excuse. Quite funny, isn’t it, how things work out? He was my favourite cricketer until that point, genuinely was. But there was some serious rage for about 20 minutes after that happened, some serious rage. It was a bad moment, that was. It was so embarrassing. He didn’t even just say: ‘No.’ He handed me off, as well.”
Pietersen did subsequently apologise, tweeting: “apologies mate! I started drinking at 1pm so didn’t even know my name by the time that function started!”
All things considered, Evans did magnificently to conjure a tight win after missing his first serve at deuce at five-all in the third set. Without hesitation, he badgered the chair umpire, pointing out that a drizzle had wet the lines and was causing a hazard.
Evans not getting shirty
Having lost his sponsorship contract with Nike, Dan Evans is more than content to carry on playing in the £13 plain white Uniqlo T-shirts he has had to buy himself. "I'm happy with these shirts at the minute. I think they look alright," he said on court after beating Bernard Tomic, but then added: "One shrunk in the wash a bit so I had to change it."
Evans regathered his composure during a short break and held off Tomic’s desperate finish. The home crowd were livid, booing him to the night skies when he returned and wrapped up the second tie-break.
The atmosphere was electric throughout, but borderline intimidating. Although Evans and Tomic have settled an old spat instigated by the Australian’s father John, who told the British player five years ago he was not good enough to practise with his son, he was briefly agitated by the behaviour of some people in Tomic’s box.
“John was fine,” Evans insisted, “but the rest of his team acted like complete idiots, screaming at me when I was getting my towel. That’s why I was upset.”
Murray, who plays the German Mischa Zverev on Sunday, said later, “You’ve got to enjoy what Dan’s doing just now and not put too much pressure on him. Tsonga is bloody good, but Dan is making it difficult for everyone. It certainly won’t be easy [for Tsonga], that’s for sure. Dan moves extremely well and he competes really hard. He’s confident just now. In that situation he doesn’t have anything to lose.
“Who’d have thought 18 months ago, ranked 770 in the world, that he would be playing Tsonga in the fourth round? The pressure is all on everyone else, so he’ll do fine.” Everyone else might soon include Murray.
Evans added: “It was a goal to make the fourth round of a slam this year. It’s satisfying. But I’m not looking back yet. We’ve got another match on Sunday. I watched so many of Tsonga’s matches in the semis and quarters of grand slams. It’s going to be a little different to be playing against him.”
And Tsonga, one of the game’s great mavericks, will probably think the same of playing Evans.
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