16 April 2021

Dan Evans’ Monte Carlo run goes on with victory over David Goffin

16 April 2021

Dan Evans followed up his brilliant upset of Novak Djokovic at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters by beating David Goffin to reach the semi-finals.

The British number one stunned world number one Djokovic on Thursday for the biggest win of his career and ensured there was no let down as he battled to a 5-7 6-3 6-4 victory over 11th seed Goffin.

Evans has now earned as many tour-level clay-court victories and wins at Masters tournaments this week as in the rest of his career combined and could surpass his career-high ranking of 26 next week.

Evans told Amazon Prime Video: “Just to come back today and back it up was probably the best thing about it. It probably wasn’t my best display of my game. I felt I got dragged into his game quite a bit and I was a bit far back.

“I thought I did a good job in the third to keep going point after point and hang in some games which I was probably a little lucky to come through.”

As he had against Djokovic, Evans began superbly but Goffin found his range on his forehand at the end of the opening set, recovering from 3-5 to take it with a run of four games in a row.

But he could not maintain that level and Evans forged ahead early in the second set, this time holding onto his advantage.

Dan Evans stretches for a backhand during his victory over David Goffin (AP)

The 30-year-old has a rare ability to bring out his best at the biggest moments and he dug in brilliantly to save four break points at 4-4 in the deciding set – he saved 15 of 17 during the match.

Goffin could not show similar fortitude and a wild final shot drew a huge roar from Evans as he celebrated setting up a last-four encounter with Stefanos Tsitsipas.

The Greek has won their two previous encounters easily, and Evans said: “He has handed it to me the last two times we have played. I will change some things a bit, be a bit more aggressive, that is the only way I can play.

“If I get dragged behind (the baseline) like I did today, with all due respect to David, he will come in more and knock the volleys off a bit better, so I need to be the one doing that.”

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