Eleventh-seed Kei Nishikori of Japan became the highest-ranked player to crash out of the US Open 2013 Championships first round on Monday. The Japanese tennis star lost to 179th-ranked Daniel Evans of Great Britain 4-6, 4-6, 2-6. Evans earned a main draw slot following three-match wins in the qualifying rounds.
“Of course it’s not easy to lose first round in a Grand Slam,” Nishikori said. “I didn’t play well and he played well. I haven’t played well these three weeks, at the two Masters [1000s]. I thought I was getting better, but still the serve wasn’t there and there was a lot of unforced errors that I shouldn’t do.”
Evans has been doing pretty well on the tour in the past few months. His ranking was as low as 367 in March but he managed to improve the numbers following a third round showing at the Aegon Championships in June and back-to-back final appearances at the ATP Challenger events in Vancouver and Aptos prior to his visit in New York.
“I knew I was a good player, but I just hadn’t put it all together,” Evans said. “I was pretty calm today. It wasn’t that much of a big deal what was happening on the court. I wasn’t nervous serving it out. I’ve played some good matches for the last five weeks. I really want to go far in the tournament, win a few more matches. Like today I did, and I’m ready to play again.”
Evans will face Australia’s Bernard Tomic in the second round. Tomic defeated Albert Ramos of Spain in five sets on Monday.
