Evans into Australian Open main draw
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Britain’s Dan Evans has reached the Australian Open main draw for the first time in his career.
The 25-year-old from Birmingham beat Bjorn Fratangelo 7-5 4-6 6-0 in the third round of qualifying in Melbourne.
Evans capitalised on six of his nine break-point opportunities to knock out the American, who is ranked 54 places higher at 131.
It means six British singles players will line up at the event, which starts on Monday.
“It’s nice [qualifying for the main draw],” Evans said. “I worked hard in pre-season in La Manga, even in the summer when I was playing in England in the Futures I was trying to work pretty hard. It was playing tennis and staying professional.
“I think that’s the difference, just staying focused on court and staying more interested and focused on just playing tennis rather than all the other stuff, and that’s pretty much what I did.”
After losing the second set, Evans, who was as low as 772 in the world rankings back in May, came out more aggressively in the third.
“I tried to hold in the first game. It didn’t feel like he was on top or any different from when I won the first set,” he added.
“So I tried to jump on him early and then carried on rolling from there. That was my plan, just to get a lead in the third. I’d beaten him twice and your belief can start to go when you’re losing again to someone who has beaten you twice. It’s tough.”