British tennis star Dan Evans celebrated wildly on court after following in Andy Murray’s footsteps by reaching the Citi Open final. The 33-year-old will face Dutch player Tallon Griekspoor in the final this evening hoping to win his second career title.
The world No 30 will go into the final as favourite, as he’s ranked seven places above Griekspoor in the ATP standings. Evans is the first British player to reach the Citi Open men’s final since Andy Murray 17 years ago.
The route to the final has been an arduous one for Evans who had to battle through two matches on Friday, firstly beating Russia’s Alexander Shevchenko in a rain delayed match which was originally scheduled for Thursday. He then re-took to the court and knocked out second seed Frances Tiafoe to take his place in the last four.
Despite his exploits the previous day the British star held his nerve again big-hitting Grigor Dimitrov to win their semi-final 6-3 7-6 (7-4) to earn his place in Sunday evening’s ATP 500 final in Washington. Evans fired just nine winners compared to his Bulgarian opponent’s 24 but capitalised on 30 unforced Dimitrov errors to progress.
READ MORE: Dan Evans opens up on sacrificing boozing for training after bouncing back from drugs ban
A victory in Washington on Sunday evening would be the biggest victory of Evans’ career eclipsing his win in the ATP 250 Melbourne event in 2021. The impressive run has been a turnaround in form for Evans who suffered opening match defeats at Queen’s, Wimbledon and the Atlanta Open.
“It was so hard after yesterday (Thursday) putting in such a big effort,” said Evans after his semi-final victory. “Coming back today it was really important to not roll over and have a bad performance.