On the Challenger circuit James Ward and Dan Evans were both playing here at the ATP Challenger Lexington. James Ward is the defending champion so will be eager to retain this title, as he has points to defend from last year. He is the 5th seed at the tournament. He played yesterday, well OK as it is in America it was this morning very early UK time when he took to the court.
The first set was a bit of a tight affair and went to a tiebreak to settle it. James won this tiebreak quite comfortably in the end, so he was on his way with the first set. He then just needed one more set to progress to the next round, he really showed that spirit that won him the tournament here last year in the second set. He came out all guns blazing and took the set 6-4, very nice win for James and a super start for the champion.
Attempting to join him in round 2 was Dan Evans, seeded 4th. Dan's form can be a little up and down, and it's often difficult to know what is going to happen, and where he will end the match. It was all going very well in the first set, as they each held serve, and the set was level at 4-4. Not really sure what happened at that point, but Dan was broken and lost the set 4-6.
This really should have spurred him into a comeback, as has happened with him before. As I stated previously though, Dan can sometimes be one of those players who can be very unpredictable when he is playing, and this proved to be the case today. He was broken early and was down 1-3 and then 1-4, he managed to hold serve twice more to make his opponent serve for the match at 3-5, this was not a problem for his unseeded opponent, and Dan fell at this first hurdle here. After his good run at the US Open last year (he came through qualification and won a couple of rounds) I had hoped he would settle down and concentrate. Not sure if he has or not, this was really a match he should have won.