Whatever happens when Dan Evans plays Bernard Tomic in the third round of the Australian Open here tomorrow, by the time he leaves Melbourne he will at least be able to afford himself some smart new clothes.
Having earned the best win of his career with a 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-3 victory over seventh seed Marin Cilic yesterday, a win that moved him into the world’s top 50, Evans is guaranteed at least £80,000.
As he took in the enormity of his achievement, Evans revealed that he had lost his Nike clothing contract at the end of 2016 and instead of the garish yellow he sported last year, he was wearing plain white shirts bought from a local shop.
Read more: Andy Murray may ask for later start time at Australian Open as he faces battle against ankle injury
“I bought about 18 shirts, something like that,” Evans said last night. “I went back this morning to buy some more. They're not the best quality, [just] to sweat in and wash them.”
Should he work his way past Tomic the chances are he might get a call from Nike, or another clothing supplier, offering him a new deal, and he would deserve it.
Having backed up his run to the Sydney final with a good first-round win, his performance against Cilic was resilient, smart and at times brilliant as he recovered from being overpowered early on.
From the second set onwards, he used his slice backhand to great effect, denying the former US Open champion the pace he enjoys and forcing the errors.
As he neared the finish line, Evans began to think about last year’s US Open, when he held match point in the fourth set against Stan Wawrinka in the third round, only to go down in five sets, the Swiss going on to take the title.
Read more: Andy Murray may ask for later start time at Australian Open as he faces battle against ankle injury
That match, he admits, took a lot of getting over, and it popped into his mind when he was standing at match point in that last game.
“I didn't want to go down the other end, sit down and serve for it,” he said. “I didn't think I did much wrong actually in the two match points. I was pretty pleased when he netted the forehand.”
Meanwhile, Roger Federer admits he’ll need to step up tomorrow when he faces Tomas Berdych in the third round.
The Swiss, on the comeback trail after six months out through injury, struggled for fluency against American teenager Noah Rubin and had to come from 5-2 down in the third set before clinching a 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 win.
“I know I've got to lift my game a little bit,” he said. “I’ve just got to play on my terms and really be focused on my own service games to make sure I don't have any lapses there.”
Read more: Andy Murray may ask for later start time at Australian Open as he faces battle against ankle injury
But Nick Kyrgios was sent packing, losing a two-sets lead before going down 1-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-2, 10-8 to Italy’s Andreas Seppi.
World No 1 and defending champion Angelique Kerber struggled in the middle of her match with Carina Witthoeft, another German, but came through 6-2, 6-7, 6-2.
Former world No.1s Venus Williams and Jelena Jankovic both advanced, as did seventh seed Garbine Muguruza and Eugenie Bouchard of Canada.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here