US Open: Dan Evans beats Bernard Tomic to reach third round

Dan Evans continued his brilliant run at the US Open, beating Bernard Tomic in four sets to book a place in the third round at Flushing Meadows.

The 23-year-old Brit came through qualifying to win the first grand slam match of his career on Monday, and although he was again the underdog he beat highly-fancied Australian 1-6 6-3 7-6 6-3.

Evans had beaten 11th seed Kei Nishikori in straight sets in the first round and he repeated the dose again as he started to show some of his undoubted potential to book a third round match with Tommy Robredo.

The game went to form in the opening set on Court 17 as Tomic broke the Briton’s serve twice to go one ahead after just 22 minutes.

A topsy-turvy second set saw Evans go 3-1 behind after two breaks of serve only to respond magnificently by reeling off five games of his own, including three breaks, to level the match up.

Evans was going for all his shots and though his expansive efforts sometimes missed their mark, they also enabled him to take the third set tie-breaker with the best tennis of the match.

Even when nerves would have been understandable at 5-3 and serving for a third round place at the US Open, Evans held himself together superbly and served it out without any doubts to ensure he will pocket at least $93,000 from his efforts in New York.

“It’s a nice thing to do, but I want to play again on Saturday and it would be nice to get out there and win that one as well,” said Evans.

“The money helps, but I’m just waiting to play each match and I’m enjoying myself and can’t wait to play again on Saturday I think.”

Evans also laughed off an appearance by the trainer during his match – who had to come on and tape up his nipples which had been rubbing and causing him problems.

“I know I’m going to hear a lot about that,” joked Evans. “I don’t know what it was. It was just agony. The stick I’m going to get back home is devastating.”