Wimbledon qualification: Britain’s Dan Evans lost in the final singles match
Britain’s Dan Evans played the last professional singles match of his career after losing to Tristan Schoolkate in the second round of Wimbledon qualifying.
The 36-year-old announced earlier this month that he would retire after the Championships which start on Monday.
Evans missed out on one of the eight singles cards, meaning he needed to win three matches in Roehampton this week to play in the final singles tournament at SW19.
But his singles career came to a disappointing end as he lost 7-5 6-0 in a match that was interrupted by a problem with the electronic line calling system.
Evans, however, is yet to play at Wimbledon after being given a wildcard into the doubles with Henry Searle.
Watched by a packed home crowd in Roehampton, Evans appeared to enjoy himself and play with ease against Australian Schoolkate.
At 5-4 down, he delighted the fans with a brilliant forehand win – he knocked it down after diving down to reach a Schoolkate shot.
That made him happy and he sat down happily, pretending he was swimming in a green field.
However, it was Schoolkate who opened the scoring before the second set was delayed for more than an hour when the electronic calling system stopped working.
“There was a temporary power outage at our fairgrounds, which meant that the electronic calling system was unable to function,” said a spokesman for the All England Club.
As the match progressed, Evans was unable to match Schoolkate’s level. He failed to win a single match and walked off the court looking dejected after the world number 147 closed out the second set in 22 minutes.
“It’s not easy to match. Dan is an amazing player and I wish him all the best in his career,” said Schoolkate.
“I’ve been looking up to guys like him for a long time. A lot of tennis today is old, it’s the same. The look, the way he swings, his pieces are amazing, he’s a great competitor and a lot of young kids can learn a lot from Dan.”
Evans has won two ATP Tour-level tournaments, while being part of the 2015 Davis Cup team that claimed Great Britain’s first title in 79 years.
In 2024, he gave up the 500 points he had won at the Washington Open last year to partner Sir Andy Murray in his final tournament at the Paris Olympics.
With temperatures reaching 34C and a red weather warning for the London area on Wednesday, the footballers were taken off the ground and replaced by members of the court services team, who are all adults.
In the qualifying matches for Wimbledon, Billy Harris won 6-4 6-4 against Zsombor Piros from Hungary, while his British colleague Oliver Tarvet won 7-5 6-2 against Alexis Galarneau from Canada.
On the other hand, Max Basing, is one win away from a Grand Slam draw after defeating Tom Gentzsch of Germany.
However, Esther Adeshina’s dream has ended for another year as she lost 6-2 6-2 to Harmony Tan from France, while Paul Jubb lost 6-4 3-6 6-1 to Marcelo Tomas Barrios Vera from Chile.
