Dan Evans hits out at Wimbledon officials after safety put at risk

Dan Evans hit out at the officials for insisting he continued to play on an ‘unsafe’ court after he crashed out on Wednesday.

The British No 3 was beaten 6-2 7-5 6-3 by Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo after a weather and light-delayed first-round match.

Evans, 34, had to come back yesterday to finish after it was called off on Tuesday night due to fading light.

But Evans, who suffered a knee injury at Queen’s last month when he slipped, wanted it pulled earlier on Tuesday because he felt the surface was too wet on Court 12 after a day of rain delays.

He got into a heated exchange at the time before the match was eventually halted just before 9pm but it didn’t get any better for him yesterday as he went out in straight sets.

Evans said: “It's sort of the second time it's happened over the grass where I've ended up going on pretty late because of the weather, which has been, yeah, frustrating. It's just part and parcel of it.

“Obviously, my first concern is to be safe after what happened.

“Obviously, that grass court wasn't safe where I slipped I don't think. I didn't think the court was playable last night for the large majority of the time we was on court.

“The powers that be in the fancy jackets didn't agree with me and we carried on.”

Evans had initially feared the knee injury picked up last month could rule him out of the Grand Slam and the Olympics.

He added: “I'll have to take some time after the tournament to work on obviously my knee, yeah, getting it stronger.

“I didn't get much time from when I did it to do the work it needs after slipping and the damage that occurred.”