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Evans and Broady crash out of Washington

Jake Davies
Tennis

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By Jake Davies

  • Jack Sock [6] defeats Dan Evans 6-1 7-5
  • Risa Ozaki beats Naomi Broady 6-1 5-7 6-4

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Jack Sock [6] defeats Dan Evans 6-1 7-5

An upbeat and week of positivity came to an end for Evans in the Citi Open in Washington as he fell to the sixth seeded American Sock at the third round stage.

Sock proved to be too difficult a challenge for Evans, with the American posting impressive serving numbers throughout their third round encounter today. Sock, now placed firmly inside the World’s Top 30 in the men’s game, can produce some fearsome groundstrokes from the back of the court. The combination of heavy spin and effective pace from the baseline, is a task that many are finding difficult to handle as Sock climbs up the rankings.

Evans could not rediscover the form that contributed to his victory over Grigor Dimitrov in the previous round. Sock comfortably took the first set with a 6-1 scoreline – dropping just the five points on serve throughout the whole of the opening set.

The British player found it difficult to exploit the inconsistencies in Sock’s game and struggled to produce similar, appealing numbers on his own service games. Even in the second set, Sock won 15 of 16 points behind his first serve, which played a huge part in his straight sets victory over the improving Evans.

Evans will reflect on this week in Washington in a positive light. Now the new British No.2 player in the world as he surpasses Kyle Edmund in the ATP Rankings.

 

Risa Ozaki defeats Naomi Broady 6-1 5-7 6-4

Broady will feel this was a missed opportunity for her to reach a rare quarter-final at WTA level after losing in a tight three set match to Japan’s Ozaki.

The strengths and weaknesses in Broady’s expansive game was on show for all to see in this particular match up in Washington. One of the major limitations to Broady’s game is her ineffective return game, which takes pressure off the opponent’s service game as a result.

Inside the first two sets, Broady created just the one break point opportunity, which suggests that the flaws in her return game was evident against Ozaki.

The British No.3 Broady forced a third set against the World No.136 Ozaki by taking the only break point on offer in a 7-5 set, and took a break lead for *2-0 in the deciding set.

Today was a day to forget for Broady – her big serving approach was not enough to get her over the line as she subsequently lost the final set 6-4 in the deciding set.

Broady should still remain confident about her credentials on the American hard courts even with a bitter loss in the Washington second round. Just ten months ago Broady reached her first ever WTA semi-final on the indoor courts of Quebec City and now she finds herself inside the World’s Top 100 and as the British No.3 player.

In addition to this, Broady was winless throughout her grass court season and had not won a match on the WTA tour since Rome in May, so her first round win will give her some confidence in the months ahead.