Evans out as it didn’t go a-Korda to plan

By Paul Lagan on Centre Court at the AELTC

Dan Evans v Sebastian Korda

 3-6, 6-3, 3-6, 4-6

Dan Evans has never progressed beyond the third round at Wimbledon, and the quest continues as he lost in four sets to American youngster Sebastian Korda on Centre Court early this evening.

The two hour 24 minutes was full of unexpected shots but a lot of regulation grass court ones.

It was Korda’s first appearance at the Championships yet alone on Centre Court.

With the first seven games going with serve, Britain’s number one Dan Evans found himself 40-love down and 3-4 down.

The Birmingham player, 31, then crashed a forehand long to give the decisive break in the set to Korda.

The 20-year-old is the son of former top 30 player Petr Korda, his sister is the top golfer in the world.

Despite Evans holding a love – 30 lead in the ninth game, Korda responded superbly and eventually smashed a game winner to take the first set 6-3 after just 26 minutes.

The second set went with serve and Evans, at 3-2 up took a 40-love lead.

Korda pulled two points back, before Korda crashed a forehand drive wide.

That gave Evans a 4-2 lead in the second set.

Each held their next serve, leaving Evans serving for the second set to tie the match.

A beautiful baseline, backhand, sliced drop shot saw Evans take a 30-love lead to get the crowd on their feet in applause for the dexterous shot.

That was enough to give Evans the edge on the game and he saw it out comfortable to 15 and make the game all-square.

When your first service deserts you, it inevitably puts extra pressure on the server, and as a result of a bad first serve game at 2-3 down, Evans lost his game to love, thus opening up the third set to the American who saw it out 6-3.

In the fourth, six times Evans had a chance to instantly break back having lost his serve, and he finally did it forcing Korda to slam a backhand into the net.

But the see-saw set took more turns when Evans broke again to go 4-2 up but, typically for the match he then lost his serve and Korda retained his.

With Korda sensing blood, he went 15-30 up in the ninth game, but then failed with a deft drop-shot. A double fault gave Korda a crucial break, which he duly took.

This left the US youngster serving for the match.

Evans sensationally went love-30 up, but was pegged back to 30-30 before an ace gave him match point.

A smash was successfully executed and Evans was out of Wimbledon at the third round – again.