-Delray Beach, Fla
One of the early stories at the ATP 250 Delray Beach Open so far has been the play of 28-year old Dan Evans. Evans, who had only won a single main draw match since Barcelona in 2017 is into the Quarter-Finals after an easy 6-0, 6-2 win over Wild Card Lloyd Harris.
Evans was almost out of the tournament in the first round. He was down a set and two points away from going home against Frances Tiafoe but the former British No. 2 rallied and knocked out the defending champion in three sets.
Since coming back from his 12 month suspension for drug use, Evans has primarily been playing Challenger events. He won his first Challenger tournament in Vancouver Canada last summer. Wednesday was the first time he had reached a main draw ATP Quarter Final since Sydney in January of 2017, an event in which he reached the final.
Earlier this year, Evans did win a round at the Australian Open but eventually lost in the second round to Roger Federer. He won the first nine games of the match against Lloyd in Delray and spent just 69 minutes on court. He is the lone qualifier to make it into the final eight.
Other results on Wednesday saw No. 6 seed Andreas Seppi defeat Jordan Thompson 6-3, 4-6, 6-1. The second time the Italian took out the Australian in 2019. Seppi won 31 of 36 points on his first serve.
Adrian Mannarino is also into the Quarter-Finals. After going 0-5 to start the year Mannarino won his second match in a row, a relatively easy 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) win over Denis Istomin.
The lone singles match in the evening session saw No. 2 seed John Isner reach his second straight tournament Quarter Final with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Lukas Lacko. Isner won all but one point on his first serve. The hard serving American had 18 aces and won 31 of his 32 first serve points.
@Sportshorn
