French Open 2023: Frustrated Dan Evans says he 'lost all trust' after ...

Dan Evans’ French Open campaign is over before it started after the 20th seed suffered a first-round exit to Thanasi Kokkinakis on the opening day of action at Roland-Garros.

The frustrated 33-year-old lost 4-6 4-6 4-6 to the Australian wild card to continue his dismal record at the Grand Slam event, where he has only one career win in seven main-draw matches.

Evans was the favourite against the world No.108, having impressively reached the Barcelona Open semi-final on clay in April, but he was overpowered by his big-serving opponent, who made it over the first hurdle in Paris for the first time since a run to the third round in 2015.

Next up for Kokkinakis is a second-round clash with 2015 French Open champion Stan Wawrinka or world No. 67 Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

The pair held their serves until the Australian broke his opponent to move 4-3 clear, and back-to-back aces helped the younger man to pull away in the first set for a 6-4 lead after 56 minutes under the Parisian sunshine.

The Brit produced four double faults and failed to earn a single break point in a disappointing start, but he responded strongly at the start of the second.

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Evans broke Kokkinakis at the first opportunity, but the Australian soon broke back as the Brit was given a warning for reacting angrily to a foot fault call.

The 20th seed again mustered a good reaction, earning two break points in the following game, but Kokkinakis saved both – the second in style with an ace – to consolidate and hold a mammoth 19-minute game.

The momentum on his side, Kokkinakis pounced in the following game with a second consecutive break, before winning a fifth game on the trot to move a set away from victory.

Kokkinakis seized the advantage in set three when he pounced on his first break point opportunity, Evans netting a forehand to put the Aussie 3-2 up on serve.

Out of nowhere, Evans earned a break-back point at 4-3 - just his fourth of the match - and the Australian's composure let him down as he double-faulted to level things up again.

But he couldn't capitalise on the potentially momentum-shifting moment as Kokkinakis immediately set up three break points. Evans saved two, the second with a beauty of a backhand winner down the line, but a return winner from the 27-year-old left him with the task of serving out the match.

Speaking after the defeat, Evans admitted he expected to be punished, and explained his mental troubles in the match.

"The players are held responsible, but the umpires and line judges are not held responsible," he said. "I'll be getting fined, obviously, for breaking the water bottle. We'll just go through the same cycle again, yeah.

"The foot fault threw me quite a bit in terms of knowing where I was then serving from. My technique sort of got thrown out. Yeah, it was difficult from then on.

"I sort of lost all trust in where my feet were. It's a very minor thing, but it became a pretty big thing in my head. It was then difficult to get away from that, especially on second serve because I just didn't feel I knew where I was on the court. It's strange.

"If they're going to call that foot fault, it shouldn't be from 35 metres away, from fence to fence through a net. That's not the reason I lost, but I was right in the match at that point."

Evans' defeat leaves Jack Draper as the only remaining British representative in the men's singles draw - the world No. 55 faces Tomas Martin Etcheverry on Monday.

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