{"id":24113,"date":"2020-02-14T14:47:57","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T19:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/?p=24113"},"modified":"2020-03-27T07:11:30","modified_gmt":"2020-03-27T11:11:30","slug":"dan-evans-proves-he-really-is-britains-current-no-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2020\/02\/14\/dan-evans-proves-he-really-is-britains-current-no-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Dan Evans Proves He Really Is Britain\u2019s Current No.1"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was late last year when Dan Evans was first asked what it felt like to be Britain\u2019s No.1 male tennis player, having replaced Kyle Edmund as the highest-ranked British man in the ATP rankings. With typical candour, Evans replied<\/a>, \u201cI don’t look at myself as British number one. I think Andy [Murray] is British number one, and then there\u2019s me, Cameron [Norrie] and Kyle [Edmund] behind him.\u201d Although it was natural that Evans would doff his cap, as it were, to the only British man in the last three-quarters of a century to win a Major, there is now no denying that he is currently the best British man \u2013 indeed, given Johanna Konta<\/a>\u2019s current travails, probably the best British player of either gender \u2013 on Tour.<\/p>\n

Evans\u2019s comeback from his year-long ban for taking cocaine has been well-documented, but it is no less stunning for that. Having been completely unranked in April 2018, when he finally completed that ban, he has risen over the next 22 months to his current lofty height of being World No.33. Indeed, given his current superb run at the Rotterdam Open, which has taken him to the quarterfinals and may yet take him further, he is likely to rise even higher before February is out.<\/p>\n

Dan Evans 2019 Breakthrough<\/h3>\n

Evans had a steadily impressive 2019, slowly rising back up the rankings to a position more in keeping with his undoubted natural talent, which is such that Roger Federer himself has remarked that playing the likeable Brummie is like \u201clooking in the mirror\u201d. However, Evans’s season and with it his career really caught fire at the end of the year, not so much on the ATP or Challenger Tours but in the team tennis events that ended the 2019 season and began the 2020 season.<\/p>\n

First, in the Davis Cup in Spain in November, Evans was absolutely at the forefront of the Team GB effort that took them all the way to the semi-finals, where they eventually lost to the hosts and eventual champions, Spain. Then, lest that be considered just a fluke or a one-off, Evans played even more brilliantly in Australia at the start of the year, defeating both Belgium\u2019s David Goffin and Australia\u2019s Alex de Minaur (both of whom are ranked far more highly than him) as the British team came within a shanked Jamie Murray forehand of making the semi-finals of the ATP Cup.<\/p>\n

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Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n