by Dan Evans withstood a spirited challenge from lower-ranked Eero Vasa to give Great Britain a winning start to their Davis Cup match against Finland in Manchester.
It was a landmark match for Evans as he surpassed Andy Murray in his 26th match of the competition to move into joint second place in the British rankings with Mike Sangster, second only to Bobby Wilson.
He would not have been the heavy favourite in their previous 37 encounters, but Vasa played well above his world number 703 position before Evans claimed a 7-6 (3) 6-2 victory at the AO Arena.
“It was a difficult match, he played great at the beginning,” Evans said. “I knew he was going to come out and play very aggressively. I had trouble hitting the ball for a long time. In the second set I started to play a little better.”
It was a crucial win for the hosts, as captain Leon Smith opted to give US Open semi-finalist Jack Draper some extra rest ahead of much tougher matches against Argentina and Canada later this week.
The 22-year-old had only arrived in Manchester on Tuesday afternoon, four days after his defeat to world number one Jannik Sinner in New York.
Instead, Smith gave Billy Harris his debut. He is currently ranked significantly higher than Evans and therefore had to play as number one and take on Finland’s leading player, Otto Virtanen, this week.
Finland surprisingly reached the semi-finals last year, but suffered a heavy blow when number one Emil Ruusuvuori was ruled out due to injury.
Your Lexus GB Davis Cup team faces Finland đź‘Š
Dan Evans vs Eero Vasa Billy Harris vs Otto VirtanenNeal Skupski & Dan Evans vs Harri Heliovaara & Patrik Niklas-Salminen#BackTheBrits 🇬🇧 | #DavisCup
— LTA (@the_LTA) 11 September 2024
Vasa’s Davis Cup resume includes losses to players from Madagascar and Zimbabwe, but he impressed in the opening set, backing up his fast serve with solid groundstrokes.
Evans looked increasingly frustrated as Vasa held his position until the tiebreak, but there the British veteran showed his class.
It has been a tough 12 months for Evans since he starred in Great Britain’s dramatic group victory here last year, with injuries and poor form causing his ranking to drop to 178th.
But after his encouraging run to the third round of the US Open, he arrived in Manchester full of confidence and effortlessly ripped through the second set to win after an hour and 38 minutes.
