Australian Open - Dressed to kill: Marin Cilic downed as Dan Evans picks up biggest scalp of career with '˜proper win'

Dan Evans grabbed the biggest win of his career by beating world No 7 Marin Cilic and did it wearing a £20 T-shirt he bought himself.
Britain's Daniel Evans celebrates after defeating Croatia's Marin Cilic in their second round match at the Australian Open tennis championships. Picture: AP/Andy Brownbill.Britain's Daniel Evans celebrates after defeating Croatia's Marin Cilic in their second round match at the Australian Open tennis championships. Picture: AP/Andy Brownbill.
Britain's Daniel Evans celebrates after defeating Croatia's Marin Cilic in their second round match at the Australian Open tennis championships. Picture: AP/Andy Brownbill.

Evans stunned Cilic with a 3-6 7-5 6-3 6-3 victory in what was his first-ever grand slam success against a top-10 player and the biggest shock of the Australian Open so far.

The 26-year-old from Solihull enthralled a packed-out crowd on Melbourne Park’s outer Court Three but has never been one to seek the limelight, as evidenced by his plain attire for the first grand slam of the year.

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“I’m just out of contract with Nike. They didn’t offer me another contract so I just went to the store and bought a load of clothes the other day, plain clothes,” Evans said.

“The shirts are £19.99. I just picked the shorts up. I was more worried about the shirts. I bought about 18 shirts, something like that.”

Offers are likely to be streaming in after Evans’s gutsy display, which earns him a third-round meeting with Australia’s big-serving Bernard Tomic.

The British No 3 scored his first top-10 scalp against Dominic Thiem at the Sydney International last week but the scale and stage of his triumph over Cilic gave it far greater significance.

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“It’s definitely the biggest win of my career,” said Evans.

“It’s a proper win. Last week was three sets against Thiem. Five sets is the ultimate test. It was really good and I played as well as I can play today.”

His victory means Evans has now reached three consecutive grand slam third rounds and continues a remarkable rise that has seen him surge from 319th in the world this time two years ago, to inside the top 50.

He might fancy his chances against Tomic too, having beaten the world number 27 at the 2013 US Open, before losing a Davis Cup tie in four close sets in 2015.

Evans was joined in the third round by fellow Briton and world No 1 Andy Murray, who eased to a straight sets win against Russian teenager Andrey Rublev.

Day three round-up: Page 23