Dan Evans produces sweary response as all seven Brits win US Open openers
Jodie Burrage completed a magnificent seventh British singles victory at the US Open – with every player remarkably winning in straight sets. Qualifier Lily Miyazaki got the first victory on the board with her first Grand Slam success on Monday.
And the British No 7 was followed by wins for Katie Boulter, Cam Norrie, Andy Murray, Jack Draper and Dan Evans. British No 2 Burrage completed the clean sweep of 18 successful sets by beating Russian Anna Blinkova 6-3, 6-4 under the lights on Court 9 last night.
“I felt a little pressure going on the court after obviously all the Brits winning today,” she smiled. “Wish I hadn’t known that going on, but who knows, maybe it helped me. I’m very much following all the results. I sat in the changing room.
“They have a little room with about six TVs. I had Andy and Jack on there. I followed the other girls this morning. It’s been a really good day for all of us. I did feel the pressure, but it’s also a really good day and it puts you in a better mood when other people are winning.
“It makes you believe that you can do it a little bit more I think, as well. I guess it helped. A good day for the Brits.” It is the first time there are more than two British female players have won a main draw match in New York since 1987.
And it is the most to reach the second round since seven players also achieved the feat back in 1977. Evans said: “It is an amazing feat. I have never heard of anything like that. Without even dropping a set? ******* hell!”
Draper said: “Definitely having other Brits do well in the draw’s amazing for British tennis. You always say it, but we can all push each other to be better. Seeing other players do well that I’m training with on a daily basis makes me really happy because I see what they’re going through, their journey.
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“I wish them all the best and hopefully we can all support each other moving forward in big tournaments like this.” Japanese-born Miyazaki is back in action in the first match on Court 5 on Wednesday (4pm UK time) against Olympic champion Belinda Bencic.
Evans said: “Lily is 27 – there is no age to stop playing tennis. She wasn’t given a wildcard at Wimbledon this year and pitches up to play qualies here and it is an amazing achievement. I think that is more of a historic thing than seven Brits winning. It is pretty impressive. She got the ball rolling.”
Burrage will next face world No 2 Aryna Sabalenka. “It’s a massive match, probably one of the biggest ones I would have played in my career,” she said. “But go out there, enjoy it like I always do.”
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