Why is Dan Evans wearing an unbranded T-shirt at the Australian Open?
IN a world where tennis' biggest stars get kitted out with thousands of pounds worth of rackets, clothes and accessories thanks to their sponsorship deals, spare a thought for Dan Evans.
The British No3 is on the run of his life following his first ATP Tour final appearance in Sydney earlier this month.
Evans has now reached the fourth round of the Australian Open, thanks to a superb run of form, including the biggest win of his career over world No7 Marin Cilic in the second round.
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Following the dismantling of Argentine ace Dacundo Bagnis, Evans toppled Croatian giant Cilic - and topped that by thumping home-favourite Bernard Tomic in straight sets.
But the Birmingham-born star is doing all of this, in a £20 shirt he bought himself.
And why? Because Nike cancelled their deal with the former tearaway Brit.
On his choice of kit for this tournament, Evans explained: “I’m just out of contract with Nike.
"They didn’t offer me another contract so I just went to the store and bought a load of clothes the other day, plain clothes.
“The shirts are £19.99. I just picked the shorts up. I was more worried about the shirts. I bought about 18 shirts, something like that.”
To make the third round win all the more sweet for Evans, it came with a side of revenge - as Tomic is sponsored by, you guessed it, Nike...
On beating Cilic in the second round, Evans added: “It’s definitely the biggest win of my career.
“It’s a proper win. Last week was three sets against Thiem. Five sets is the ultimate test, I think.
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"It was really good. I think I played as well as I can play today.”
However, Evans claimed he wasn't in the best of mindsets while attempting to close out the win against the world No7 - thanks to a blown match point in the third round of the US Open against ultimate champion Stanislas Wawrinka back in September.
The Brummie star recalled: “I still thought about that [Wawrinka] match on the court.
"It’s not easy when you had the opportunity to sort of close out the big match and then lose.
“I thought about it at 40-30, last game, last match point [against Cilic]. I didn’t want to go down the other end, sit down and serve for it.
“I didn’t think I did much wrong actually in the two match points but I was pretty pleased when he netted the forehand.”
Evans will now face French No12 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the fourth round on Sunday - with Britain celebrating having two stars in the fourth round in Melbourne for the first time since Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski in 2001.
Incidentally, the shirt - from Uniqlo, who sponsor the now-knocked out Novak Djokovic - has now sold out. I wonder why...
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