Dan Evans hits out at British tennis for being too elitist on French Open exit
D
an Evans fired a warning shot to British tennis on his exit from the French Open insisting the game is simply too elitist within the UK.
A annoyed Evans misplaced his opening-round match to Thanis Kokkinakis 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, which means he boasts only one victory at Roland Garros in six makes an attempt.
But having hit out at the LTA within the build-up to the match suggesting Emma Raducanu’s US Open title win had papered over the cracks for British tennis, he had one other pop following his Paris defeat.
“I voice my opinions because I want younger children, working-class kids to get the support they deserve,” he mentioned. “In any other sport when people voice their opinions about a system, it goes forward. But, in tennis because we’re so elitist in England, it doesn’t get put forward.
“I’m doing it for working-class people like I was. I just don’t think there’s a chance for people from working-class backgrounds to get into the sport and get a chance if their parents don’t have money.
“They [the LTA] think I do it against them, I’m just asking for things to be a bit different, more people to have a chance to get funded.”
Evans minimize a annoyed determine for a lot of the match towards Kokkinakis. Little separated the pair within the opening set and the British No2 was main 4-1 within the second when his Australian opponent put collectively a string of 5 consecutive video games received.
The No20 seed, who has received simply eight matches so far in 2023, mentioned: “I’ve got my own battles to deal with on court. I’ve got to get my game in a sport where I’m able to compete at this level. I’ve been very poor in the big tournaments this year.
“I said the other day there’s some soul searching. There will be plenty of that in Saint-Cloud tonight, or wherever I am. It’s shocking how I played today. It’s disappointing. It’s not good enough.”