Dan Evans graced Wimbledon’s Centre Court once again when he took on Novak Djokovic in the second round.
The ATP veteran has been playing some impressive tennis of late after picking up six match wins on grass this season before arriving at Wimbledon.
He commenced his 10th campaign at the All-England Club by defeating fellow Brit Jay Clarke in straight sets.
This set up a clash against former world number Novak Djokovic, who is in pursuit of a record 25th Grand Slam title.
Dan Evans says he has yet to play his last match at Wimbledon
Dan Evans gave his all in his second meeting against Djokovic, who had yet to register a victory over the British number one.
The first set was competitive, with the Serbian creating numerous opportunities to break Evans’ serve, but the 35-year-old kept his opponent at bay.
That was until the eighth game of the opening set when Djokovic finally broke serve to lead 5-3, before successfully closing out the set.
Djokovic lost just two more games for the rest of the match as he closed out a 6-3, 6-2, 6-0 victory to reach the third round. Evans waved to the crowd and they gave him a standing ovation as he left the court.
For anyone wondering if that was the last time Evans would compete at Wimbledon, BBC presenter Claire Balding has confirmed that is not the case.
“I spoke to Dan later on to confirm that this is not his farewell to Wimbledon, which it is not,” Balding said. “But he said facing Novak was just awesome. He said that he could beat anybody.”
Novak Djokovic explains how it felt playing Dan Evans at Wimbledon
After losing their first meeting at the 2021 Monte Carlo Masters, Djokovic was determined to defeat Evans at Wimbledon.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion took just one hour and 47 minutes to defeat the Brit and continue his quest for more Grand Slam history.
The sixth seed knows what it feels like to play against rivals competing in front of their home crowd, which he explained during his post-match interview.
“A Brit in Britain is never easy to face,” Djokovic said. “Dan Evans can be causing a lot of trouble if you are not on your game which I think I was from the beginning to be honest.
“I knew exactly what I needed to do and I executed it perfectly. Sometimes you have these kinds of days where everything goes your way.” Djokovic will take on fellow Serbian Miomir Kecmanović in round three.
