British tennis civil war deepens as Jamie Murray hits back at Dan Evans: 'He has made a hash of his career'

Forget the Davis Cup, British tennis is making an entry for the world infighting championships. The country’s leading doubles player Jamie Murray hit back on Monday at critical comments from Dan Evans. Murray said that Evans had “made a hash of his career”.

“For Dan to just lazily trash the doubles game, it annoys me a lot,” said Murray. “It is ill-informed and dumb. Also, to say the reason that we are on the doubles tour is because we don't work as hard as the singles guys is just total nonsense.”

Admittedly, the Evans-Murray stand-off is not quite as toxic as the feud unfolding in Australia this fortnight, in which the local Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt complained that Bernard Tomic had been making threats against him and his family for the last 18 months.

But this is still a hostile debate between two of our leading performers, which might go on to create problems in team events of the future. Great Britain will be participating in the remodelled Davis Cup towards the end of November, as well as the brand-new ATP Cup next January. And it is highly likely that Evans and Murray will be forced to share a locker room.

The row began from an apparently innocuous starting point. On Saturday, after moving into the third round of the men’s doubles, Murray had suggested that the Lawn Tennis Association should be making more use of his coach and mentor Louis Cayer, possibly as a high-performance director. He also said: “They [the LTA] should celebrate more the success of the doubles because that’s the thing they’ve clearly got to be most proud about.”

This sparked an unexpected and strongly worded response from Evans, the world No 189, who was eliminated in the second round of the singles here after a creditable performance against Roger Federer. “Who exactly has Louis Cayer ever coached apart from doubles players?” Evans said, speaking to the Daily Mail. “Why would British tennis allow him to take charge? It's a ludicrous comment.”

Doubles players, Evans went on, are “people who didn't make it at singles and people who didn't have the attitude to work hard enough to make it in the singles game”.

Murray is understood to have been informed of Evans’s comments on Monday morning, just before a busy day in which he scored victories in both the men’s and mixed doubles. When he finally reached the interview room, just as the sun was setting on Melbourne Park, he had his response ready.

“I've been playing the tour since 2007,” Murray said. “Travelling the world, working my a--- off to stay at the top of the game and make a living for myself. This comes from someone who really hasn't applied himself as much as he should and has made a hash of his career with his decision-making.”

Murray didn’t specifically mention Evans’s year-long ban for testing positive for cocaine at this point, but he did seem to be alluding to it. “I still manage to make a good living,” added said Murray. “Let’s be honest, a lot better living than what Dan has done in his career.” Before this tournament, the winnings stood at $4,277,708 for Murray and $1,414,593 for Evans.

As to the issue of playing together for Great Britain, Murray added: “Doubles is going to be hugely important in the ATP Cup and the new Davis Cup. That’s one of the reasons for our past success in Davis Cup: obviously guys like Dan and Wardy [James Ward] had some big wins [in singles] along the way but we always needed the doubles point.

“I mean, I’m friends with him [Evans]. You know what he’s like: he’s a character. He’ll shoot from the hip, he won’t necessarily think first before speaking but if that’s how he feels, that how he feels. I’m sure there’s a lot of other guys that maybe think the same but I’m not going to lose sleep over it.”