Evans powers through to give Britain’s No1 a straight sets victory over Lopez

By Paul Lagan at AELTC

Dan Evans GBR v Feliciano Lopez Spain 

Court 2-  7-6, 6-2, 7-5

Britain’s Number one Dan Evans held his nerve under pressure from the Spaniard Feliciano Lopez to record a straight sets win on Number Two court today to get his Championships off to the best possible start.

Evans, 31, from Birmingham, but living out in the UAE, has never progressed beyond the third round at Wimbledon, but he took just two hours and four minutes to see off Lopez, who showed glimpses of power and subtle dexterity, especially with the occasional dinked drop shot, but was, for the most struggling on grass.

The clouds overhead, while not threatening rain, gave the court a dour, dank feel.

The crowd capacity increased as the match wore on, and that give Evans greater sense of support.

He also has Davis Cup captain Leon Smith in the stands, cheering him on with a ‘C’mon Evo’ whenever a decisive point was reached.

As for the match itself, while not reaching the dizzying heights of past classics, was just full of quality shot play by both players. For Evans the greater sense of control of the surface was enough to see him through.

Evans held the opening game of the match.

Games went with serve, with Evans finishing his second game with a smart, backhand drive down the line.

However the Spaniard looked reasonably comfortable with his serve at this point

Evens was almost broken in the eighth game but recovered. He then produced a terrific cross-court forehand to put the Spain left-hander under pressure.

The Brit should have broken Lopez in the ninth game when on advantage, but again dropped an easy pass into the net.

At 6-5 down and 30-love down it looked like Evans was going to blow the first set.

But some power serves forced errors into Lopez and put the set into a tie-break.

Evans raced into a 3-0 lead, then 4-1 lead, with Lopez complaining to the umpire about something and nothing.

It worked as Lopez pulled it back to 4-3 and then power drove a smash to make it 4-4.

A glorious drop shot and forehand drive restored the two point gap for Evans and gave him set  point which he took on the second serve.

The second set went with serve, until the sixth game with Lopez 3-2 down and 40-love down, he complained to the umpire about something in the crowd then challenged a long shot to lose the game and give Evans. 4-2 led.

He finished off the second set in style,  breaking Lopez to love to make it, 6-2 and two sets to love lead.

The  third set went with serve as Lopez tried to get some traction in the match.

At 3-3, Evans faced two break points, but each time managed to force Lopez into unforced errors.

The Spaniard looked for some inspiration from his team sitting in the stand, but none was forthcoming and Evans took a 4-3 lead.

A terrific low, backhand, angled drop shot almost gave Evan’s a sniff of a 5-3 lead, but Lopez produced a smart  left-handed cross-field shot to see out the game.

Evans held the ninth game to force Lopez to serve to save the game.

He did with little resistance from the lad from Birmingham.

Evans reciprocated with a love game to take it to 6-5 then served out the match.