BRITAIN’S DAN EVANS savoured his best Grand Slam showing with a tenacious straight-sets win over local hope Bernard Tomic at the Australian Open on Friday.
The pumped-up, 51st-ranked Evans eliminated Australia’s last remaining men’s contender in a 7-5, 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/3) win over the 27th seed to reach the fourth round.
Evans lined up a round of 16 encounter with the 2008 finalist and 12th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France.
It is Evans’s best Grand Slam result, having reached the third round of both the 2013 and 2016 US Opens and last year’s Wimbledon.
And he has done so wearing a €15 t-shirt he bought in a local Melbourne shop days before the tournament after losing Nike as a kit sponsor earlier this month.
Evans revealed his shopping trip after he shocked world number seven Marin Cilic on Wednesday.
“I’m just out of contract with Nike. They didn’t offer me another contract. I just went to the store and bought a load of clothes the other day, plain clothes,” Evans said.
“Aus$19.99, the shirts are,” he said, adding that he “didn’t look” how much his shorts cost.
“I was more worried about the shirts.”
Evans’ kit contract lapsed in December, despite a breakthrough season for a player who once had a reputation for too much partying.
Evans, 26, broke into the top 100 — from 772 a year earlier — and he now sits at a career-high of 51, after reaching his first ATP Tour final this month in Sydney.
Evans says he had recovered from “dark times” at the tail-end of last season, after he failed to convert a match point against eventual winner Stan Wawrinka at the US Open and then suffered a series of disappointing defeats.
“It was just tough. Bernie is difficult, he is unorthodox when he plays, he plays aggressive,” Evans said.
“I found it hard at the start but happy to have come through.
“I was just focusing on the end goal the whole time.”
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