Dan Evans hits out at Wimbledon officials and accuses opponent’s team of making comments towards him during suspended first-round clash with Alejandro Tabilo
- Evans has just returned from a knee injury suffered after slipping on the grass at Queen’s
Dan Evans became embroiled in a heated exchange with Wimbledon officials and members of his opponent Alejandro Tabilo’s coaching team during their suspended first-round match.
Evans accused course manager Remy Azemar of “not caring about the players” and repeatedly complained that the surface of Court 12 was too wet to play on.
The British No.3 has just returned from a knee injury he sustained when he slipped on the grass at Queen’s.
“I’ve already been injured on a wet track this season, I don’t want to do that again,” he told Azemar. “Remy, you don’t care what the players do.”
Only after multiple inspections was the match finally halted ‘due to the condition of the court’, just before 9pm on Tuesday night. The score in the second set was 3-3 and Evans was a set behind.
Dan Evans was unhappy with the conditions during his first round match against Alejandro Tabilo
Evans accused court supervisor Remy Azemar of ‘not caring about the players’
“You have to understand what I mean when I slip on Queen’s and almost break my knee,” Evans told Azemar as he walked off the court.
Evans celebrated with a ‘fist bump’ to the audience.
Officials later claimed that the decision to stop play was due to a combination of the condition of the field and poor light.
It wasn’t just the referees who felt Evans’ wrath as the Briton became embroiled in an altercation with players in Tabilo’s penalty area.
Evans accused them of making comments against him and Tabilo even went to his team to mediate.
Evans lost three break points when trailing 3-1 and then two more when trailing 4-2, before Tabilo broke Evans’ serve to take the first set 6-2 in 40 minutes.
“I’m just glad I got here because I injured my knee a few weeks ago and the initial prognosis wasn’t good,” Evans wrote in his column for Mail Sport ahead of the tournament.
“I was pretty much ruled out so I haven’t had much practice and my expectations are quite low. But it’s a good opportunity to get out on the court before hopefully playing doubles with Andy Murray at the Olympics in Paris.”