Dan Evans battles his way into the second round of the Aegon Trophy
Dan Evans set up an all-British second round battle with Brydan Klein at the Aegon Trophy in Nottingham with a hard-fought win over fifth seed Ryan Harrison.
Just one Briton will stand in the men’s singles event after Thursday’s match as Jamie Baker, Ed Corrie and Josh Goodall all went out in the opening round at the Nottingham Tennis Centre.
British women’s No.3 Johanna Konta scored a gutsy come-from-behind victory over fifth seed and world No.82 Misaki Doi to seal a place in the quarter-finals, prevailing 6-7(3), 6-2, 7-6(4). It is the highest ranked player that Konta has beaten this year.
Five of the women’s single seeds bowed out in a dramatic day of action that saw world No.33 Tamira Paszek of Austria retire in the third set of her second round match against Alison Riske with a hamstring injury.
Meanwhile, Konta went the distance and impressed with her tenacity during the two hours and 20 minutes on court.
She steadied herself after twice being broken as she served for the first set, at 5-4 and 6-5. She came back strong in the second set before showing even more grit in the third.
The 22 year-old had her serve broken at 3-3 in the deciding set, but broke straight back before taking the match in the tiebreak.
“She made me work for it," Konta said.
“I didn’t take my chances in the first set, and credit to her she played well in those games and she played well in the tiebreak – but that is history.”
Men’s wild card Evans recovered from a first set tiebreak loss of his own to win the enthralling centre court spectacle 6-7(3), 6-0, 7-6(5).
Momentum swung dramatically a number of times in the deciding set.
Firstly, former world No.43 Harrison saved match point at 4-5, then then the American had Evans under pressure with four break points with the contest poised at 5-5.
When the match went to a tiebreak, the 21 year-old Texan got off to a flying start to open a 2-0 lead and Evans admitted he had to dig deep to haul himself out of danger from there.
“I thought I played my best tennis in the tiebreak,” Evans said.
“It is very satisfying after losing the first set the way I did. It is good to start to start the grass season with a win - it definitely sets me up nicely for the next few days.”
Evans returns to centre court to meet Klein who had to battle back from a set down to beat fellow qualifier Prakash Amritraj of India 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Klein said: “It was an extremely tough match, in the first set he was making some awesome returns and serving well.
“It was a bit cold today so it took a while for my body to get going, I feel that I was a step too slow and my shots weren’t really going through with much penetration - credit to him, he jumped on that.
“He took me to town in the first set and I knew that if I didn’t change how the match was flowing it was going to be a quick loss for me, but I stepped up and got more aggressive.”
Elsewhere in the men’s singles, top seed Marinko Matosevic of got the better of fellow Australian Sam Groth 6-3 7-5 to set up a second round meeting with Adrian Mannarino who got the better of Baker.
Meanwhile in women’s singles action, former Aegon Trophy winner Eleni Danilidou continued her strong form, getting the better of sixth seed Vesna Dolonc 6-2, 6-4 to set up a meeting with the only remaining seed Karolina Pliskova.
Croatian Petra Martic put an end to qualifier Gabriela Dabrowski’s stunning run - which saw the Canadian overcome second seed Jana Cepelova in the first round – battling back from a slow start to triumph 1-6, 6-1, 7-6(3).
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