British interest in singles ended in disappointing fashion at the Australian Open with a straight-sets defeat for Dan Evans against ninth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime in the third round.
Evans had won their only previous meeting at the same venue 12 months ago to claim his only ATP Tour title – the Murray River Open – but a repeat never looked on the cards from the moment he dumped a forehand volley into the net to lose the opening set.
Auger-Aliassime had spent eight hours on court in his first two rounds but Evans was unable to make this an extended stay on John Cain Arena, going down 6-4 6-1 6-1 in just an hour and 53 minutes.
Losing out to the 9th seed#BackTheBrits 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/aqKOFPrXIP
— LTA (@the_LTA) January 22, 2022
The British number two did not have to take to the court to make it into the last 32, with second-round opponent Arthur Rinderknech withdrawing injured ahead of the scheduled clash on Thursday.
By the end of the day he was flying the flag alone after defeats for Emma Raducanu and Andy Murray, who was among a sizeable British contingent supporting Evans courtside.
There were surreal scenes early on as the sounds of a singer belting out Beatles and Elton John hits at a nearby concert drifted over the arena. Evans found it significantly less amusing than the crowd but had no choice but to play on.
It was Evans who had the first chances with break points in the fifth and ninth games but Auger-Aliassime was rock solid when it mattered, and that would be a recurring theme.
![Felix Auger-Aliassime overpowered Dan Evans](http://image.assets.pressassociation.io/v2/image/production/5ddfeb9d5924753c8be83472bf055e63Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjQyOTI1MDE4/2.64872671.jpg?w=640)
The 21-year-old Canadian has borne the burden of expectation since setting a series of age-related records on the second-tier Challenger Tour.
Initially he struggled to make his mark at grand slam level but, since beginning work with Rafael Nadal’s uncle and former coach Toni last spring, Auger-Aliassime has taken several steps forward.
He reached the semi-finals at the US Open and began this season in impressive fashion by guiding Canada to the ATP Cup title.
The frustration for Evans, who has also started the season well, will be that a lot of the damage was self-inflicted, particularly the two missed volleys at the end of the opening set and then a double fault on break point to start the second.
![Dan Evans chases down a forehand](http://image.assets.pressassociation.io/v2/image/production/551fa0923ce0f93f3ff1e214702eee51Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjQyOTI1MDc1/2.64872478.jpg?w=640)
Auger-Aliassime extended his run of games to seven to lead 5-0 before Evans finally stopped the rot.
Auger-Aliassime had been a little loose in the first set, especially on return, but he got better and better as the match wore on, overpowering the much shorter Evans from the baseline.
The pressure told as Evans dropped serve again in the third game of the third set and Auger-Aliassime – who hit 40 winners compared to just 10 for his opponent – quickly wrapped up a comprehensive victory.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here