Evans soars, Edmund prevails, Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski claim the doubles title
• 2 MINUTE READ
Dan Evans once more demonstrated that he has stepped up to the mantle of British No. 1 delivering a determined win over former World No. 1 Andy Murray. He had to work for his victory – Murray’s serve earned him good free points and allowed him to stifle Evans’ game in the first set, but Murray would be the first to admit that maintaining that intensity is something that will come with time.
After the match, Murray said: “My game's there, I just need more time to practice and prepare and I'll get there.
“Some of the tennis I've played this week I think as very encouraging, I just wasn't able to do it for a long enough in matches. That's something that when I was up at the top of the game and competing regularly is that my level was the same throughout whereas I'm just struggling to maintain that.”
Evans said: "I'm immensely proud to have been on the court with Andy. In this environment, in the semi-final, you don't get to do that every day so it's great to come through winning.
"Just really happy with the way I played, with the way I moved and I was pretty resilient after the first set."
One of the positive aspects of this format is the reduction in the length of time to complete games, and that will have come as quite a relief to Kyle Edmund as he had to toil to (quite literally) up-end Cameron Norrie, whose frustrating trip on match-point sent the former British No. 1 into the final.
Edmund said: “It was a tough match. It felt I was coming from behind - I felt he was a bit happier with how the match was going than myself. I had to find a way of changing that.
“I guess that's all is needed in that format. You only need to get a set to force a third [set] tie-break - and in a tie-break you've always got a chance.”
To cap the day off tournament director Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski overcame a disastrous start to turn the tables on Evans and Lloyd Glasspool for a second time this week, this time to claim the inaugural title.
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