Dan Evans hints at end of his Davis Cup career after Great Britain crash out

Dan Evans has said this was “probably” his final Davis Cup appearance after a straight sets loss to Canada’s Denis Shapovalov. With Great Britain now missing out on the finals in Malaga, Evans noted that “you’ve got to learn when to leave the party – I need to have a think”.

Great Britain came into the day having to win all three of their ties. Yet Evans was beaten 6-0, 7-5. Jack Draper was also defeated, losing to Felix Auger-Aliassime 7-6 (10-8), 7-5 and was moved to smash his racket in frustration after squandering several chances to take the first-set tie-break.

On his outburst between sets, Draper said: “I’m not doing much wrong, the players were just coming out with incredible tennis consistently. That’s fair play to them but obviously as a tennis player, when you’re in that position and you want to win, sometimes the anger just boils over.

“I need to be better, I shouldn’t be doing that, but, at the same time, sometimes it does help to release a little bit of anger and a bit of tension, and to come out in the second set and really work had to get back into the match.”

‘You’ve got to learn when to leave the party’

Speaking moments after stepping off the court, an emotional Evans was circumspect. When asked if playing in the Davis Cup is likely to be a factor for him over the next few years, he said: “There’s a good saying, which I wasn’t very good at when I was younger: You’ve got to learn when to leave the party. I need to have a think. I’ve obviously thought about it before.

“I came here being a bit hurt before. This could really be a week off for me if I wanted it to be. And it would be nice, obviously. But I love representing my country.”

The 34-year-old went on to explain how he could take any difficult decision out of the hands of captain Leon Smith, saying: “This is a bit different because Cam [Norrie] wasn’t playing, but there’s probably some better players coming than me at the minute.

“I’ve thought about [playing on], so I’ll have a think, but I don’t think it’s right to be putting Leon in awkward positions because I played X amount of ties. If I don’t feel capable of playing, I won’t come back.”

Despite only eking out nine points in the first set, Evans said it was not an issue of desire. “It’s not about hunger… It can be an awkward situation for everybody, really, and then playing singles and doubles is not ideal at my age. I can do it, but next year’s another year on. I’d obviously want to still play. But it’s more the fact of the other people who are only going to get better by playing, and I’ve probably had my fair share now. So yeah, it could be and probably will be. So, we’ll see how it is.”

The first set was a case of gone in 26 minutes for Evans as the Canadian who won all three of his ties, describing himself as in a “bubble” immune to the feverish crowd. He broke serve immediately against Evans and it went downhill from there for the Briton, who remarked afterwards that fans “would be looking for refunds”.

Regarding the record attendance, Evans brought up the spectre of fellow 2015 Davis Cup winner Sir Andy Murray. “To get 15,000 through the door today, whether you like it or not, without Andy Murray – that’s the bottom line, he sold the tickets before, that’s how we got people through the door before. It was amazing [today] and something I’ll never forget.”