5th seed Andrey Rublev had an easy afternoon out against the 25th seed from Britain Dan Evans in a straight sets win here at Margaret Court Arena – 6-4, 6-2, 6-3.
The early stages of first set was really interesting with both players being on the same page. But Rublev have taken the whole show from then on where he managed to tick off all three sets – including an easy 2nd & 3rd stanza – before he confirmed Evans’s elimination for the 3R win.
Evans fired off not bad when building some early momentum. Sadly, he fell off a cliff following the 1st set loss and couldn’t find a way to put the pressure back to Rublev throughout the rest of this tie. He exited Melbourne park with back-to-back 3rd rounds over the last two years, but having made the Round 4 twice in 2017 (Australian Open) & 2021 (US Open), his next breakthrough singles’ grand slam career will have to wait at another time.
And congratulations to Rublev with the easy win. He has great finishing ability that helped Rublev top such a huge lead on Evans; It will be interesting to see though if he has the fightback needed to overcome Rune for 4R & advance into the Final 8 here for the second time since 2021. Now he hasn’t made the semis so far in his career but has a consistent Top 10 ranking at No.6 right now, especially when he had two Final 8 appearances at Roland Garros & US Open last year. So hopefully his recent grand slam singles’ record would help him stay into the 2nd week & have an extended run here at Melbourne Park.
