Dan Evans played the last singles match of his career on the Roehampton grass on Wednesday. Then the lights went out.
With temperatures topping 34°C, a power outage at the Wimbledon Qualifying and Community Sports Centre on Bank Lane knocked out the electronic line-calling system and sent players off court to shelter. Play was suspended for almost 90 minutes. It was, as Putney was already discovering, London’s first red heat alert in four years.
Evans, 36, had already announced he would retire after Wimbledon. His opponent in the second round of qualifying was Australia’s Tristan Schoolkate, and when the match eventually resumed, the scoreline read 7-5, 6-0. His singles career was over.
The outage knocked out the venue’s electronic line-calling, the automated ball-tracking system that has replaced line judges at qualifying, forcing a long stoppage on one of the hottest afternoons the borough has seen in years.
The setting carried its own weight. Evans spent part of his career training at the National Tennis Centre on Priory Lane, which leads to the qualifying venue, when the LTA supported him through some of the harder stretches of his career. He came back to Roehampton’s grass at the end of it.
Evans was once ranked sixth in the world, won two ATP titles (Melbourne in 2021, Washington in 2023) and helped Britain win the Davis Cup in 2015. He was at the Paris Olympics two years ago, partnering Andy Murray for Murray’s final match as a professional. Roger Federer, after beating him at the Australian Open, described playing Evans as looking in a mirror. He has slipped to world No.297 since breaking his wrist in China last September, and has not won a Tour match since Washington last July.
Given a wildcard into the Wimbledon men’s doubles with Henry Searle, the 19-year-old he coaches, Evans came back through qualifying one final time rather than stepping away quietly.
He won his first-round match on Monday (7-6(2), 6-3 against Juan Carlos Prado Angelo from Bolivia on the 809-capacity Show Court 1) and said afterwards that playing the Roehampton crowd felt right.
“Win or lose, it was amazing to get the chance to play here,” he said. “Because they are real fans.”
Searle, the 2023 Wimbledon Boys’ champion, was in the crowd on Wednesday to watch his coach’s final match. Evans offered a dry take on the decision: “It’s probably the hottest day of the year, and he wanted to come and watch me run around, which isn’t the smartest.”
Searle won his own match 6-3, 6-4 later that afternoon. The two will partner in the Wimbledon men’s doubles when the main draw begins on Monday 29 June, with the draw ceremony on Friday.
The Wimbledon Qualifying and Community Sports Centre on Bank Lane, which hosted Evans’s first win on Monday and his farewell on Wednesday, keeps going for another fortnight yet. The Lexus British Open arrives from 30 June to 3 July, bringing wheelchair tennis and junior competition as part of the sport’s 50th anniversary year. Britain’s Alfie Hewett, Gordon Reid, Andy Lapthorne and Lucy Shuker are all expected to compete.
The grass isn’t resting any time soon.
