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By way of a brief precursor to a match that was an uphill struggle for a fine player and a good man, when Dan Evans tested positive for cocaine — a non-performance enhancing drug, in 2017 — he was banned from tennis for a year.
When Jannik Sinner twice tested positive for an anabolic steroid, clostebol, in March last year, he was banned for three months, did not miss a single Grand Slam and has been welcomed back to the sport as a wronged hero.
Go figure. Go figure this, too: when Evans agreed to partner Andy Murray in the men’s doubles at the Olympic Games last summer and carried him through an emotional swansong to a magnificent career by reaching the quarter-finals, he did so knowing he would sacrifice 111 places in the ATP rankings and drop from 58th to 169th.
He has been dealing with the repercussions of that sacrifice ever since and so when he walked on to Centre Court to play his second-round match at Wimbledon on Thursday against seven-time champion Novak Djokovic, he was already experienced in the art of fighting against adversity and trying to defy the odds.
Evans, who needed a wildcard to play in the men’s singles this year, was a joy to watch in a first set where he fought like a tiger to stay with Djokovic and played some brilliant tennis in a contest that was high on quality and entertainment.
This was not the Djokovic of the first round when he struggled against Frenchman Alexandre Muller. This was the Djokovic with whom we are much more familiar: relentless, unyielding, metronomic and merciless.
Novak Djokovic swept aside Dan Evans in the second round with blasting serves and rasping forehands
Dan Evans deserves our respect for throwing his ranking last summer by partnering with Andy Murray at the Olympics - a sacrifice he has been paying the price for ever since
He said that Djokovic still has to be a contender after another stunning performance
Evans, 35, gave it everything during that first set. Djokovic’s first serve in the match was an ace. Both of Evans’s two first serves were aces. In his second game, he had to work incredibly hard to hold his serve. He saved four break points before clinching it.
One rasping cross-court forehand that set up a winning volley even brought applause from Djokovic but Evans faced three more break points in his next service game and came back from 0-40 to save them and hold again.
‘If I had to sum it up,’ Evans said with a wry smile after the match, ‘it felt as if the tennis balls were back in my pocket very quickly and never stayed in there a long time. Novak showed again why he is a contender here.’
Evans saved two more break points at 4-3 down in the first set, which brought his total to nine. But then he could hold back the waves no longer. On the 10th break point, the British No 5 hit a backhand long and Djokovic quickly took the set.
Evans started the second set with a magnificent cross-court backhand passing shot that left Djokovic stranded at the net but he began to tire a little under the scrutiny of the examination to which he was being subjected, and soon the Serb No 6 seed broke him again.
Djokovic then raced into a 4-1 lead. ‘His serving has just been absolutely remarkable,’ Tim Henman said of Djokovic on the BBC. ‘Dan Evans is having to work extremely hard for every single point.’
Near the start of the third set, as Djokovic began to accelerate towards the finish line, the crowd rose spontaneously to applaud Evans and roar him on as he girded himself for one last attempt at defiance.
Djokovic was impervious to it all. He closed out the set 6-0, the 50th time he has inflicted that score on an opponent in a match at a Grand Slam, tying Andre Agassi’s record.
Evans said he knew it might have been the last time he would play on Centre Court. Let us hope he is wrong about that. For what he has given to British tennis and for the talent he possesses, he deserves more.
