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British tennis star Daniel Evans hopes to meet three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray in the Sydney final. Evans, ranked at No. 26 in the world, overcame rising American Maxime Cressy 6-4 7-6 (5) to reach the Sydney semifinal.
Evans, the 2017 Sydney runner-up, is set to battle world No. 20 Aslan Karatsev for a place in the Sydney final. On the other side, former world No. 1 Murray will have to overcome big-serving American Reilly Opelka in order to reach the Sydney final.
“It would be nice to play [Andy] obviously, but yeah, we both have tough matches,” Evans said to the press after his win, per Tennis Majors. “It’s great that there is two [British players] in the semis.
Hopefully we can both win”.
Evans, Murray have tough opponents
Evans and Karatsev are set to meet for the second time in their respective careers. Karatsev beat Evans last year en route to winning his maiden ATP title in Dubai.
On the other side, Murray and Opelka are set to clash against each other for the first time. “My first match [against Viktor Durasovic] was very quick, and if you play four or five matches like that, it doesn’t take so much out of you, whereas if you play a number of matches like I did against [Nikoloz] Basilashvili [which went to a gruelling three sets], then it can be counterproductive,” said Murray.
“Obviously with today’s match being a short one and the first one being a short one and tomorrow I play against Opelka, which, you know, physically is not going to be demanding — well, it could be, but the nature of how he plays, you know, you’re going to get a lot of short points, a lot of quick points, I wouldn’t think physically that would take as much out of me either”. It remains to be seen if Evans and Murray can both get the job done in their Sydney semifinal clashes.