British number one Dan Evans saw his time at the Monte Carlo Masters come to an end on Saturday after losing in straight sets to world number three Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Despite having little success on clay courts throughout his career, the 30-year-old shocked fans worldwide by progressing to the last four via a surprise victory over Novak Djokovic.
Tsitsipas faced Russian sixth seed Andrey Rublev in the final on Sunday and secured his first ever Masters 1000 title.
Despite being dominated by Tsitsipas, Evans was glad to reminisce on a remarkable week playing on a surface he had previously spoken about his dislike of.
The world number 33 had only ever won four clay-court matches at the highest level – two main-draw matches at Barcelona in 2017 and two Davis Cup matches in 2013 and 2017 – before his surprising run in Monte Carlo.
Not only did he beat Djokovic in the last 16, but he also earned wins over Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic, Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz and Belgium’s David Goffin – who have all won or played Masters finals in their careers – to reach the last four.
Later on Saturday, Evans reached the doubles final alongside Neal Skupski for the second successive Masters tournament. The British pair won 7-6 (7-0) 2-6 10-4 against Colombian top seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah.
However, the duo unfortunately fell to a 6-3, 4-6, 7-10 defeat against Croat pair Mate Pavić and Nikola Mektić.
Even though he’s carrying some positive form, Evans has stated that he is unlikely to take up his Team GB place at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics – having previously also missed Rio 2016.
The summer competition doesn’t carry ranking points or prize money and overlaps the start of the US hard-court season.
Evans told The Guardian: “I love playing Davis Cup and everything and I think everyone should represent their country for the Davis Cup, Fed Cup and ATP Cup but the Olympics is sort of an individual event and I’m not sure I’ll be going to Japan really.”
