HSBC CHAMPIONSHIPS

June 16, 2025

Daniel Evans

Queens Club

Press Conference

D. EVANS/F. Tiafoe

7-5, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Congrats, Dan. You seemed quite reserved afterwards. I thought the emotions would be flowing a bit more. Tell us how you're feeling inside and how your emotions are now.

DANIEL EVANS: No, I was emotional. Yeah, it's been a long time since I played that sort of level, and I was really excited to play here. But the closer it gets to the match, and you start to realize you need to perform, yeah, I was just really happy.

I was really conscious to take, like, when I'd win the match to sort of take it in and not, yeah, just take a minute before I really, you know, let go.

So, yeah, it was an important match. Yeah, it meant a lot.

Q. You said in your TV interview, That's why I'm still hanging around on the grass. Tell us how it feels to be back in a big arena, playing a top player like that after the last few months not playing some of the bigger events?

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, no, it was good. I still believed I've got that tennis in me, and I still believe I can do good things inside the top 100. But believing it and it happening is a lot different.

You know, that's why I wake up in the morning to go to practice, to go to training. You know how some days you think, are you deluded, are you nuts, have you still got it, still got it in your legs? I think today showed I still have a bit left, yeah.

Q. The wildcards are announced by Wimbledon on Wednesday. Do you think that performance and this week can show you justify one if you were to receive one?

DANIEL EVANS: I would hope the past 15 years has given me a shot at a wildcard. Not just at Wimbledon but I think in other events here.

You know, I obviously really want to play Wimbledon. I really enjoy playing all these events, but it's not just -- you know, I'm the first to harp on about the wildcards. It's not just about one week or one match. It's about what you do 52 weeks of the year.

Tennis is not just about the grass court season in Britain. It's great that we've got an amazing set of events, but there is other tournaments, and I haven't been good enough at those other tournaments, but I've still been professional, still train day in, day out, so I hope that's enough to get me a wildcard. If not, I'll go through quallies.

But I'm pretty confident I have a shot at getting a wildcard. And so should a few other people. Other people have had great years, and hopefully the Brits get them.

Q. You deserve one, certainly. And 12 months ago you said you wouldn't want a wildcard. You'd rather get it on ranking. Has that process changed because of the up-and-down year, or is it different because you're a bit older now? Last year you seemed so adamant.

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, it's all in context. I didn't want to take a wildcard off a younger guy, but I don't think any younger players have been ripping up stumps to knock me out of the wildcard spot.

So I think I've got a good shot again. If I don't, yeah, I respect the All England Club. It's an amazing tournament, and they might go for younger people, which is perfectly fine. If they don't, I've got a chance, yeah.

Q. Well played. How challenging has it been to go back down to challengers? What's the toughest part about finding your best tennis in those situations?

DANIEL EVANS: The toughest part is I have not found my best tennis at those events. I've contemplated it quite a bit being in Barletta in the winter when it's a summer town and it's ghost town.

The bottom line is I love playing tennis. I love the game. I have never played tennis for the money, or it's more for the, you know, the accolades of winning on the tour and that's it. That's where I want to be.

Even now I still want to be there. Yeah, yeah, it's not easy going to these challengers and not playing your best tennis. That's the worst thing. You know, if I was going there and winning some of them, but I have definitely not done that this year, and that's the toughest part.

You know, tennis is funny. You've got to be ready to walk for the door when it opens or an opportunity comes, and that's what I did today.

Q. On the doubles, playing with Henry, one of the young guys who is coming through and has obviously been grinding away at that level, have you taken him under your wing a bit? How big is that serve? It looks enormous.

DANIEL EVANS: It's an interest bet, because in a few years I might need a doubles partner at Wimbledon (smiling).

No, he's good and he's from where I grew up, pretty much. I just think he works hard. He deserves help. That's all it.

I have hit with him, and he give 100%, and I really liked his attitude on the court. He didn't go away. He was fighting, and that's just in practice. And that's half the battle on the tour is, you know, sticking in there when you're not so good, at the minute which he isn't, but he fights hard, and I think what he did on I think Saturday in quallies, beating a top-100 player who has had a great year is just a start for him.

You know, you have seen him out there. He's got a top game and great attitude, more importantly.

Q. On that serve, in quallies he hit one at 139. Someone said he's got 145 in him when he's fit.

DANIEL EVANS: And he doesn't try and hit it (smiling). Yeah, the guy, when we played doubles yesterday, I think he hit his first serve out wide at the match, and it was 136. It was pretty impressive.

He's got a big future, and, you know, if he stays fit, which isn't going to be easy, that body, that build and stuff, he's got to be a hell of a force on this surface, especially.

Q. You focused on playing doubles with Andy Murray at the Olympics last year, which cost you some ranking points. How much of an inspiration is he, and how good does it feel to win in the arena named after him?

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, I didn't really think anything of it when I was put first on, but then a few people mentioned it, that I had finished with him in his last match and then played the men's event the first match. It was pretty cool to do that.

The Olympics was one of the best things I have ever done. Yeah, to be part of that, the atmosphere in those matches, I'll never forget.

Yeah, I've got some pretty -- I'm not one to look back at pictures and memories, but I've got some pretty cool pictures from that event. It was something that will stick with me forever, and I'm proud to have I played with him.

Q. Some of the comments you said the other day, that some players might complain about the lengthy schedule, do you feel some of the younger guys might just feel they can't say no? Would you think it would might be points/prize money thing? Jack Draper is one of the ones that's kind of spoken about it before, so I don't know if you guys have had a conversation about that.

DANIEL EVANS: Everybody is entitled to their opinion on the schedule, but the tour has been like that for however many years. The top, top guys schedule properly, and that's, you know, that's I guess what's part of the issue, I imagine, is how people schedule how many weeks they want to play, how many weeks they don't want to play.

Me personally, I see the weeks before Grand Slams are way stronger than they were maybe ten years ago. There is more top players playing. I don't know if that's to try and pick up cheap points, but, you know, there are these massive teams now. They are allowed to have some input into it. There are loads of weeks in the year you can take off or train or whatnot. That's up to them.

Anybody outside the top 15 don't have those views, because the bottom line is anybody outside the top 15 need to play every week. People need working opportunities. If you are at 60 in the world with more than two people on your staff each week, you need to make money.

So you can't just not have tournaments every week. They need tournaments. That's it. Can't just listen to the top guys on scheduling. Just because they are better than us at tennis doesn't mean their voice is louder to talk.

That's what I'll say. I'm more than happy to have the conversation with whoever wants it.