Dan Evans’ fairytale of New York continued with victory over Bernard Tomic 17 months after being told he was not good enough to practise with the Australian.
Evans, who had never won more than one match in qualifying at a grand slam before arriving in New York, has now won five in a row to reach the third round.
He built on three qualifying victories and a first-round win over 11th seed Kei Nishikori by recovering from a set and a break down to defeat Tomic 1-6 6-3 7-6 (7/4) 6-3.
Evans then revealed that last year at the Masters tournament in Miami he had been due to practise with Tomic only to be told to leave by the Australian’s father John.
It was not something the 23-year-old from Birmingham forgot, and revenge must have tasted sweet.
“I was there playing qualies,” said Evans. “His dad sort of fobbed me off and said I wasn’t good enough to practise with him. I remembered that.
“We went to practise, it was all booked. I got to the court. His dad said, ‘No, no, he’s a qualifier, I’m not hitting with you.’ It was a bit embarrassing.”
The victory nets Evans around £60,000 almost half his career earnings so far and, perhaps even more importantly, 90 ranking points.
In his characteristically nonchalant way, Evans summed up his performance as “a decent effort”.
He said: “Especially the first set wasn’t great, was it? It was nice to come back and level it off in the second after being a break down.
“It wasn’t nerves. I was pretty relaxed. He just played so slow, so strange, that I basically did what he did. I wasn’t very good at it, was I?
“That’s probably the best I’ve had to fight back. In Davis Cup I’ve always been pretty much up when I’ve won the matches. So everyone and anyone after going down a set 6-1 and 2-1 down, they think I’m done and dusted.
“That was pleasing I could find some belief inside and come back and find my game, because it wasn’t there. I looked at the clock, I think it was 34 minutes, I was a set and a break down. It was looking like the airport for me.”
Evans also refused to be too impressed by the way he played in the tie-break, saying: “He gave me a lot of opportunities to play. He made me look pretty good in the tie-break. He was just pushing the ball into the middle of the court.”
The 23-year-old was more concerned by the ribbing he will get from his friends for a medical timeout he took at the end of the third set to have his nipples taped.
“I don’t know what it was,” he said. “It was just agony. The stick I’m going to get back home is devastating.”
Next up for Evans is 19th seed Tommy Robredo while victory there would more than likely set up a fourth-round match against Roger Federer.