Dan Evans knocked out of Australian Open by Russia’s Andrey Rublev after Brit’s generous banana stunt goes wrong
DAN EVANS’ kind banana gift backfired as he slipped up against Andrey Rublev.
Evo, 32, kindly tossed the curvy yellow fruit to his hungry opponent during the fourth changeover of the first set of this third-round tie at the Australian Open.
But the hit of potassium worked in the Russian’s favour as he wrapped up the first set in the next game on the Margaret Court Arena.
No.5 see Rublev, 25, ended up winning 6-4 6-2 6-3 and setting up a date with Dane teen Holger Rune in the last 16 on Monday.
Evans said: “I quite like him, so I shared one with him. That was about it.
“They only brought two out. So I donated one so he could have one.
“Would I have given my banana to somebody I didn’t like? No.
“Andrey was too good. He played some good tennis. I didn’t feel I did too much wrong.
“He changed his game to how he played me a few times before. He hit the backhand line very well. He was very aggressive and better than me.
“It’s frustrating but just have to move on.”
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Rublev, who has never made it past the quarter-finals of a Slam, said: “I mean I didn’t ask him. I asked the ball boy.
“Dan asked for two bananas earlier and he had two. So he just gave me one.
“Okay, I thought, I’ll take it. And I caught it. He helped me with some energy for sure. I won an extra two games because I ate a banana!”
Evans is likely to stay in Melbourne over the coming days before flying across the Pacific Ocean and several time-zones to appear in Great Britain colours at the Davis Cup in Colombia.
The qualifier in Bogota will be staged at a lung-busting altitude of 8,660 feet on February 4-5.
The British No.2 said: “I’m awful on Skyscanner but I did look a while ago when I was making decisions.
“I won’t be going home first. It’s just too much. I heard there’s a good flight on Wednesday. Don’t make your travel plans on me.
“It will be an experience I guess.
“It’s the worst possible draw. I think everybody knows that. It’s miles away, the hardest conditions, and all of their team are pretty good in those conditions.
“I can’t even remember what it’s like to play in those conditions. We’ll find out pretty shortly.”