Great Britain’s Dan Evans has continued his recent surge of form with a 6-4, 6-4, win over 12th seed Grigor Dimitrov in the second round of the Citi Open.
Prior to this week, Evans has never won a match in an ATP 500 event. He ended that trend by defeating Germany’s Benjamin Becker in the opening round of the Washington tournament. Facing world No.40 Dimitrov in the second round, Evans eased to a 6-4, 5-2, lead, before experiencing a late fight back from his opponent. Dimitrov’s attempted comeback failed to succeed as the British underdog secured the win on his fifth match point.
Evans’ latest triumph is only his fifth win over a top-50 player. The 26-year-old achieved the milestone with the help of two aces and 17 winners. In the third round Evans will play either sixth seed Jack Sock or Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko.
Sam Querrey required over two hours to battle past compatriot Bjorn Fratangelo 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4. Throughout the marathon encounter, the eighth seed dropped his serve only once as he won 85% of his first service points. Querrey also produced 52 winners during the match as well as 40 unforced errors. The win is sweet revenge for the world No.26 following his loss to Frantangelo earlier this year at the French Open.
“It was one of those matches you have to fight through and I’m happy I fought through the way I did.” Querrey said shortly after his win.
The Citi Open is Querrey’s first tournament since Wimbledon. At SW19 he made headlines around the world after stunning top seed Novak Djokovic in the third round. A confident Querrey admitted that his shock win has had little effect on his mentality.
“I feel the same, maybe a little cooler,” Querrey said. “I’m confident. Beating Novak or not, I’m feeling confident.”
In the last sixteen, the American will play 11th seed Alexandr Dogopolov. The Ukrainian also endured a marathon match against Australian Jordan Thompson, winning 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(4).
French Four seed Benoit Paire dismissed Jared Donaldson 6-0, 7-5, in just 71 minutes. The world No.24 won seven consecutive games before his young American rival got onto the scoreboard. Paire will play either Yoshihito Nishioka or Gilles Muller in the next round.
Finally, Donald Young won his all-American battle against Ernesto Escobedo. Young, who recently reached the semifinals at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, outlasted the world No.269 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
