SURBITON, June 5, 2018
Dan Evans defeated countryman Ed Corrie in the final round of qualifying at the Fuzion 100 Surbiton Trophy on Monday to reach the main draw where he will face world No. 115 Thomas Fabbiano of Italy in the first round.
Evans battled back from a break down in the second set to triumph 6-4, 7-5 in 73 minutes.
“It was difficult today because it was cold and there wasn’t much pace on the court so it suited him a bit more but I got through and it’s good to be main draw,” said Evans.
British wild cards Alex Ward and Jay Clarke both exited the tournament at the first round stage after suffering defeats to Australia’s Alex De Minaur and Alex Bolt respectively. Ward won just five games as he fell 64 61 to the No. 6 seed while Clarke narrowly lost to Bolt 6-1, 6-7(3), 6-3.
“He didn’t do much wrong in the first set, I don’t think I did either, and then in the second set I tried to use my serve more as a weapon and I managed to keep it close and sneak the tiebreak. Then in the third set it was anyone’s,” said Derby-based Clarke.
Russian veteran and No. 4 seed Mikhail Youzhny lost to US-American Kevin King 6-7(4), 5-7. The 27-year-old from Atlanta fired nine aces, winning 85 per cent of his first service points to prevail in one hour and 19 minutes. Eighth favourite Bjorn Fratangelo also fell in the opening round. The World No. 107 from the United States lost to German Mats Moraing 6-3, 3-6, 6-7(4) in one hour and 34 minutes.
No. 4 seeds Ken and Neal Skupski of Great Britain came through a close encounter with Frenchman Hugo Nys and former Wimbledon doubles champion Philipp Petzschner of Germany 2-6, 7-6(2), 10-5, while Luke Bambridge and Jonny O’Mara also needed a match tiebreak to see off fellow Brits Liam Broady and Scott Clayton.
Kyrgios loses in doubles
Nick Kyrgios – photo: Chloe Knott
There was disappointment for Nick Kyrgios on his return from an elbow injury. The 23-year-old Australian former Wimbledon singles quarterfinalist, who received a wild card into the doubles event with US-American Jackson Withrow, lost 7-6(2), 3-6, 10-6 to N Siriram Balaji and Vishni Vardhan from India in his first round doubles match on Centre Court.
“They were serving well, they would have served a pretty high first serve percentage, so it was tough to get any kind of a look on their service games and in the super tiebreak there were just a couple of points in it,” said Kyrgios. “Ultimately I’m pretty happy with the way my elbow is going and that’s why I was playing.”
In the Women’s ITF Pro Circuit event, the British pairing of Harriet Dart and Katy Dunne wasted little time in overcoming Madison Brengle of the United States and Valeria Savinykh from Russia in their first round doubles match. The wild cards raced to a 6-3, 6-2 victory in just 47 minutes.
“It was definitely a really solid match. We haven’t played with each other for a while so it’s nice to get the win, we played pretty well and will look to build on that in the next round,” said Dart.
