Dan Evans got into a heated exchange with Wimbledon officials and members of his opponent Alejandro Tabilo’s coaching team during their suspended first-round match.
Evans accused court supervisor Remy Azemar of ‘not caring about the players’ as he repeatedly complained the surface on Court 12 was too wet to play.
The British No 3 has only just returned from a knee injury that he picked up when he slipped on the grass at Queen’s.
‘I’ve already been hurt on a wet court this season, I’m not willing to do it again,’ he told Azemar. ‘Remy, you don’t care about the players.’
It was only after multiple inspections that the match was finally suspended ‘due to the condition of the court’ just before 9pm on Tuesday at 3-3 in the second set with Evans a set down.
Dan Evans was unhappy with conditions during his first-round match against Alejandro Tabilo
Evans accused court supervisor Remy Azemar of ‘not caring about the players’
‘You have to see where I’m coming from when I slipped at Queen’s and nearly broke my knee,’ Evans told Azemar as he walked off the court.
Evans then celebrated with a fist bump to the crowd.
Officials later claimed the decision to suspend play was due to a combination of the court condition and bad light.
It was not just the match officials who felt the brunt of Evans’ ire as the Brit got into a war of words with members of Tabilo’s box.
Evans appeared to accuse them of making comments towards him with and Tabilo even went across to mediate with his team.
Evans squandered three break points at 3-1 down and then two more at 4-2 down before Tabilo broke Evan’s serve to wrap up the first set 6-2 in 40 minutes.
‘I’m just happy to have made it here because I injured my knee a couple of weeks ago and the initial prognosis was not good,’ Evans wrote in his Mail Sport column before the tournament.
‘I was pretty much ruled out so I’ve not had much practice and my expectations are fairly low. But it’s a good opportunity to get on court before I hopefully play doubles with Andy Murray at the Olympics in Paris.’