US Open 2016: Dan Evans ditched the nights out and now he could break the top 50 in the world

Sep 02, 2016

DAN EVANS has been here before.

In 2013, the Brit made the US Open third round by beating rising star Bernard Tomic.

Dan Evans stuned Alexander Zverev to sail through to US Open third round
IMAGE: Getty Images North America

At almost midnight local time on Thursday, he defeated No 27 seed Alexander Zverev, the 19-year-old German tipped for the top, to match that achievement.

A lot has happened in between.

Evans’ love of a night out and a corresponding lack of affection for hard work in practice stopped him fulfilling his huge potential.

In May last year, he was the world No 772. Now he is heading for the top 50.

So what went wrong three years ago, after what was supposed to be his big breakthrough?

Evans, 26, said: “It sounds stupid but it wasn’t really a big thing to get into the top 100 for me. I didn’t really get what it meant.

“Now it means that I’m into the main draw of tour events, Grand Slams, and it’s a pretty prestigious thing in Britain to make the top 100.

“Back then, selfishly, it wasn’t really apparent to me it would be such a big thing.”

The motivation for battling his way back came from a desire to stop letting people down, particularly dad David — but, more importantly, from within.

The Birmingham ace said: “I love playing tennis. It doesn’t look like that all the time but I do.

“If you’re playing tennis for the right reasons, you don’t give up because it gets hard.

“I got myself a fitness trainer and I got in good shape, which helped a lot.

“I used to make bad decisions, going out and stuff. I was upsetting the wrong people, my dad especially. I’d be out and he’d be texting me to come home and I’d ignore that.

“It comes to a point where you get fed up with doing that stuff and having him nagging away.

“But he’s nagging away for the right reasons. Even now if I’m out, he will check if I am coming home.”