Dan Evans suffered more Wimbledon disappointment after he exited the tournament in the first round for the second year in a row.
World number 30 Evans had started his match with Quentin Halys on Monday and quickly found himself two sets down, but had to wait until Tuesday to try and mount a comeback.
Rain from lunchtime onwards on day two forced a further delay before his tie was eventually moved to Centre Court and despite winning the third set, Evans exited 6-2 6-3 6-7 (5) 6-4.
Evans had been scheduled to be second up on Court Two on Tuesday but the wet weather arrived just after midday and subsequently saw all play on the outside courts cancelled for the day.
The British number two was made to wait before he was switched to Centre Court after women’s second seed Aryna Sabalenka beat Panna Udvardy in 62 minutes – allowing him to complete his round one match on the big stage under the roof.
Pumped up in front of a decent-sized home crowd, Evans watched his French opponent Halys take an early tumble in the third game of set three.
Halys grimaced in pain after he twisted his left ankle and would later call for the trainer, but he was fine to resume as the set stayed on serve.
The nip-and-tuck nature of the match extended into a tie-break and a backhand into the net from Halys saw Evans force a fourth set.
Break points were still hard to come by for the Birmingham right-hander, playing in the main draw for an eighth time, but an opportunity finally presented itself in the seventh game.
Evans wheeled off three points in a row after trailing 30-0 but his attempted forehand winner down the line landed long and his French opponent held after a super drop shot was combined with a fine winner behind the baseline.
It felt decisive and proved to be with Halys able to book his place in the second round on his first match point with a booming forehand winner to inflict another early exit on Evans, who has now lost seven of his last eight matches.
