SURBITON, June 10, 2019
Daniel Evans is the first grass-court champion of the new season. The No. 4 seeded Briton wins the €137,560 Surbiton Trophy held at the Surbiton Racket & Fitness Club. Evans defeated Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-2, 6-3 in a rain-interrupted singles final on Sunday.
The World No. 80 from Birmingham saved four of the six break points he faced, converting five of his own nine opportunities to prevail after only 65 minutes.
How good is that!
Dan Evans needs just 65 minutes to take the title in Surbiton, d. Troicki 62 63 for his first grass-court crown 🌱🏆 pic.twitter.com/18r6u40nij
— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) 9. Juni 2019
“It’s a great start to the grass-court season,” said Evans, as quoted on the ATP Challenger Tour website. “Viktor seemed a bit flat and I got on top early. I could have been even more clinical in the second set. It was a tough week of matches and I am just grateful to get those in and come through with no injuries. I lost to Jeremy Chardy here last year and Dustin Brown before that, so this was good. The quality and competition is always high at this tournament.”
By lifting his seventh ATP Challenger career trophy, his first of the season, Evans earns €18,290 in prize money as well as 125 ATP-Ranking points. The 29-year-old from England has become the first winner on home soil since his maiden triumph in Jersey 2009. Evans is also the first champion on grass since Alex Bogdanovic in Nottingham 2005.
Earlier in the day, Marcel Granollers from Spain and Ben McLachlan of Japan clinched the doubles title. The top seeds rallied past Soonwoo Kwon of South Korea and Ramkumar Ramanathan from India 4-6, 6-3, 10-2. The encounter lasted one hour and eight minutes.
