Dan Evans has played his last singles match as a professional tennis player after losing in the second round of Wimbledon qualifying in Roehampton.
Evans, who missed out on receiving a main draw wildcard for his final Grand Slam, was beaten 7-5, 6-0 by Australia’s Tristan Schoolkate on a sweltering day with heat affecting play. Coming into the tournament, the 36-year-old confirmed he would be retiring after Wimbledon following 18 years playing on the Tour. He made his ATP debut in 2008 at The Queen’s Club.
“On Monday I played my first round (match). It was strange thoughts going through my head, but today I was good,” Evans said during an interview with BBC Sport.
“I felt good. I’ve been thinking about it (retirement) for a long time. I’ve had plenty of time to get my head round it.
“I’m happy with my decision. I knew it was time and I’m really looking forward to what’s next.”
Evans has been ranked as high as 21st in the world back in 2023 and is a two-time winner on the ATP Tour. He won the Sydney international in 2017 and the Delray Beach Open in 2019, which were both ATP 250 events. During his career, he has scored high-profile wins over Novak Djokovic, Marin Cilic, Dominic Thiem, Andrey Rublev and Frances Tiafoe. All of those players were ranked in the top 10 when he beat them. In the Davis Cup, he won 18 out of 24 matches played (including doubles). He also paired up with Andy Murray in the Paris Olympics in what was Murray’s final tournament.
Coming into this week, the Brit said he was extra motivated by the decision to not hand him a wildcard for his home major. His best result is a run to the third round on three occasions.
“Any time you get to play at the All England on any of the match courts is amazing, but centre court really is special and that’s probably one of my fondest memories.” said Evans, who made his Center Court debut against Roger Federer in 2016.
“When I came back after my ban, some of those wins were pretty special and always received very good support at the championships.”
Evans served a 12-month ban after testing positive for cocaine in 2017.
“I’m immensely proud of how I manoeuvred my way through my career, how I got to the top of the game, 21 in the world is not bad,” he commented.
“I gave everything I had. I invested in my team heavily, in my tennis heavily and listened.
“I can look in the mirror and say I did everything I possibly could and nobody can take that away from me. That’s what I promised I would do after the ban and I did that.”
The former top 30 player will still be playing at Wimbledon but in doubles alongside Henry Searle, who he is currently coaching. Searle won the boy’s title three years ago and is making steady progress as a professional, recently winning his maiden Challenger title on grass in Dublin.
“I’ve been coaching Henry since midway through January after Australia. It started very slowly, like really ad hoc, and then sort of became a little bit more serious in the last two, three months,” Evans said of his coaching role.
“He’s going in the right direction. He’s a really hard worker. He’s getting to learn the game a bit more and that’s all you could ask for is to work hard day in, day out.”
