Evans collapses against Machac, Czech Republic leads Great Britain 1-0 in deciding match for the Davis Cup Finals quarterfinals

Both of these teams can qualify for the quarterfinals but they need to win this match. For Team Great Britain a loss could send them to a quarterfinal as well but they will need at least one match. To be completely safe they will need to defeat the Czech Republic but it did not start off well. Dan Evans took to the court against Tomas Machac and the Czech youngster proved very tough.

From the start, Machac played a very aggressive style that caught Evans off guard. The Brit is known for his defensive prowess but Machac was simply too good. He served well and his forehand was simply too much to overcome for Evans who was left stunned after dropping the first set with 6-2. The Brit started playing much better in the 2nd set finally finding some rhythm.

That allowed him to take a 4-1 lead in the 2nd set and it seemed like Evans would be able to level the score at 1-1 heading into the 3rd and deciding set. However, the Czech thought otherwise as he was able to find another level in his game to come back and make it 5-5. Evans served for the set at 5-4 but lost his serve rather easily to the disbelief of his teammates.

He then dropped his serve once more to give Machac the chance to serve out the match and the Czech player took it. He closed out the set with 7-5 after winning games in a row. Evans was up 5-2 but collapse late to give the Czech Republic the first point.