Dan Evans falls just short but still gives Rafael Nadal a fright

Respect: Dan Evans shakes hands with Rafa Nadal after his Rogers Cup defeat
Getty Images

British hopes in the main draw of the Rogers Cup ground to a halt last night, despite Dan Evans pushing Rafael Nadal close in a 7-6, 6-4 defeat.

Evans got off to an electric start against the world No2, who was playing his first competitive match since losing to Roger Federer in the semi-finals of Wimbledon, breaking him in his opening service game.

The British No2, who has climbed from 190th in the world rankings at the start of the season to the brink of a return to the top 50, saw his own serve then broken but had two set points in the tiebreak that he could not convert, Nadal edging it 8-6.

Evans was broken by the Spaniard at the start of the second set but, after a second rain delay, he levelled the scores before Nadal broke again on his way to victory.

Nadal was full of praise for the world No53, saying: “Daniel is a player that combines an aggressive game with good hands. He’s able to read the game very well, so he knows how to play tennis in terms of tactics. It’s always tough the first match on a hard court after such a long time.”

Kyle Edmund failed to back up his opening-round win over Nick Kyrgios as he crashed out 6-3, 6-0 against Daniil Medvedev but returned to court for a 6-4, 6-4 doubles win with American Taylor Fritz over Nikoloz Basilashvili and Jan-Lennard Struff.

However, Andy Murray’s previously unbeaten partnership with Feliciano Lopez came to an end following a three-set defeat to French Open finalists Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin.

Murray and Lopez had reunited in Montreal after a successful partnership at Queen’s — the Briton’s first tournament since undergoing hip surgery — which resulted in them winning the men’s doubles title.

Hopes of a second tournament win as a pairing, though, came to an abrupt halt in a 2-6, 6-3, 10-8 defeat.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in