ROLAND GARROS

May 23, 2022

Dan Evans

Press Conference

D. EVANS/F. Cerundolo

7-6, 6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Happy birthday. Is that a nice way to mark your first-ever win in the singles draw, your French Open?

DANIEL EVANS: Well, thank you. Yeah, it's nice, more happy to be through just to the second round here. Yeah, I played a good match and just happy with the day, really. Waited around quite a bit, so it was a difficult morning, but it's a good afternoon.

Q. The golf celebration? Why that today?

DANIEL EVANS: I stayed up too late last...

Q. You watched all of it, did you?

DANIEL EVANS: Not all of it, but my missus was hassling me to sleep, as they do. I wanted to Watch some more, but I was up early. And so, yeah, I just, I woke up to -- I basically missed one of the best endings ever. So, yeah, I was a bit gone this morning, yeah.

Q. You'd usually stay up and watch that?

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, yeah.

Q. Ordinarily you would, but, obviously...

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, I'd stay up. I've got two friends here, they stayed up and watch. I couldn't believe it when I read it in the morning. So it was a little annoying, but I'll take the win.

Q. We just asked Cam who is the best golfer out of the lot of you and he said Joe Salisbury and --

DANIEL EVANS: Joe likes to think he's the best, but if we put some money on it, some decent money, he wouldn't be.

Q. How come? The pressure?

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, he's not used to it. Yeah. Yeah, there's some good golfers. Joe's good, Jonny O'Mara's good, I won't say I'm good, but I'm okay with them.

Q. A lot of people who watch you play are saying that you like to make matches a dogfight, you like to get under your opponent's skin and wind them up. Do you feel like that's a big part of your game and what sort of things get under your skin and wind you up?

DANIEL EVANS: Not really. I don't mind. I like to be competitive. I know I don't have the biggest weapons in the world, so I have to hang around. Basically people that hit the ball hard and make me run wind me up.

So, yeah, no, but today was good. Yeah, I thought it was a pretty hard match and luckily it didn't go into a fourth set, so I was happy with my day, yeah.

Q. And is it a case of taking one match at a time or have you set your expectations to really go on a run?

DANIEL EVANS: No, no, just, I have another tough match next. I have Mikael Ymer or Duckworth. So no, just match at a time. Hopefully get some food, recover, and then get a good night's sleep.

Q. You sort of mentioned this to the BBC before the tournament, the hot topic is obviously having the points stripped. Is that the right decision, in your opinion?

DANIEL EVANS: In my opinion, it's not the right decision. But it's a difficult one. Obviously everyone's got an opinion on this and, you know, it's a difficult situation for everybody involved. I hope there's a resolution. I hear people are sitting down together, the ATP and Wimbledon.

But for me it's not. I want to be playing for points, obviously, but there's obviously bigger things to this decision than me wanting points.

I also don't like it when the players are saying it's a disgrace that Wimbledon -- you know, obviously a lot of players have opinions, but don't know the ins and outs of the issue. So, you know, everybody's got an opinion on everything, as per usual, but it's a difficult one from both parties.

I would like to have more of player input, but that wasn't to be. But, yeah, you know, like most things, the bigger, better players were asked, and there's quite a lot of other players on the tour as long as well as Rafa, Novak. So, which is disappointing, in my opinion, from the ATP.

Q. I was going to ask you that because Harriet Dart said exactly the same, that someone of her level wasn't consulted. So you're saying that you guys weren't consulted --

DANIEL EVANS: No.

Q. -- in a sort of, this is happening, we would like your opinion?

DANIEL EVANS: Of course. But being better at tennis makes your opinion louder. Does it make it right or wrong? Does it mean it's any more or better opinion than mine or Harriet Dart's? And that was, in my opinion, disappointing that we wasn't asked. And that, as a Brit as well, I think we should have been asked.

Q. I suppose in this day and age a digital vote is not exactly hard to organize, even if it comes down to a black-and-white yes or no, just having some sort of input from the players.

DANIEL EVANS: I don't think it's a players' decision. This isn't a players' decision. The powers that be need to make this decision, which is fair enough. But to hear it, it's going to the way of no points, through press, et cetera, is not ideal from the ATP, in my opinion. Again, my opinion.

Q. Just following on from that then, Dan, what would you like to see happening in terms of a wider range of players being consulted on being able to have an input into this decision-making process?

DANIEL EVANS: No, they would know more of the general feeling among the players and then at least then they don't have a situation like this, where I'm not coming into a press conference and I don't know, I wasn't asked, and I'm saying I wasn't asked or Harriet Dart wasn't asked. We just ask for transparency and on this occasion it wasn't there.