For a player who has so often brought his best to the biggest stage, the decision to put Dan Evans’ last professional match on Wimbledon’s minuscule Court 15 felt an odd one. A limp 6-2 6-4 exit in the first round of the men’s doubles was hardly what a player who once lit up Centre Court and seemed a man possessed when playing Davis Cup would have envisaged for his farewell tour.
But he was at the mercy of the powers that be, and they have rarely taken a shine to Evans, a maverick who couldn’t toe a party line if he tried. As he noted drily in his post-match press conference, “It was all a bit fitting for how the last month has gone for me.”
