As Dan Evans entered the final stages of his professional tennis career, he was already settling into his role as a coach on the Tour.
Birmingham-born Evans was Britain’s highest-ranked singles player and won two ATP titles during his career. He was also part of the Davis Cup team that won Britain’s first trophy in the event for 79 years. Twice he reached the last 16 of a major event, doing so at the 2017 Australian Open and 2021 US Open. He is also a two-time semi-finalist at Masters events.
Evans retired from the sport at Wimbledon, where he controversially missed out on a wild card into the main draw and lost in the second round of qualifying. He also played doubles alongside Henry Searle, whom he now coaches.
20-year-old Searle won the 2023 Wimbledon boys’ title and is currently ranked 220th in the world, six places below his career best. He has won two Challenger titles, which were both achieved earlier this year under Evans’ guidance.
Ubitennis founder and director Ubaldo Scanagatta spoke with Evans about his work with Searle at this week’s Florence Open, a Challenger event where the Brit was seeded sixth. Searle won his opening match but lost in the second round to Czech qualifier Matthew William Donald, who was born in Germany and has yet to break into the top 400.
UBITENNIS: I remember when you won Washington. Now you are following this young guy who won Junior Wimbledon in 2023. What do you expect from him? He’s very tall, and he has a good serve, but in my opinion, he is quite erratic.
EVANS: He’s a good player. He’s very raw. As you said, he has to change his game style a little bit from juniors. But he’s working hard. He tries very hard.
One thing is to practise and then to do it in the match is the big thing. That match (against Donald) is why he’s here on the clay to try and learn different shots, different variety and work hard. So he’s doing good.
It’s a tough match, but he has to learn to lose, play next week and get ready to go again. That’s the beauty of tennis. You get another chance next week. He has a good chance to be a good tennis player.
We’re here to help him. It’s our job to help him, and then hopefully he can learn a little bit along the way and find his route.
UBITENNIS: So are you his personal coach or do you work for the LTA?
EVANS: No, personal.
UBITENNIS: Since when?
EVANS: I was injured for a lot of this year. So I started around January whilst I was still playing. I’ve been with him a little while now. He’s been good and some bad, but that’s part of being young. It’s difficult.
UBITENNIS: Is it difficult for a player who has been travelling so much, as you have done, to keep travelling and following a young kid, hoping that he becomes a top player?
EVANS: I’m not hoping. It’s up to him. I want him to do well because he’s from a similar area to where I’m from in Birmingham. But it’s down to him if he wants to make the next step. I’m there to help. I can’t do it for him, so that’s a big thing. If you want to learn, the quicker you learn, the quicker you move up the rankings. But matches like today (earlier this week against Donald) are what make tennis so difficult. This guy is a good fighter, plays smart tennis and he didn’t have the tools to win the match. So that’s a big lesson for him.
UBITENNIS: How many weeks do you follow him?
EVANS: As much as I can, but then some weeks I take off if I have too much travel. For now, a lot is in Europe, so it doesn’t bother me to come to Italy for two weeks. Next week is in Sheffield, England.
So it’s not too much. Maybe when he starts to get better, I’ll take a bit more time and get somebody else to help a bit. He has a fitness trainer who does some weeks as well, so it’s not so much.
He’s a good person first and foremost, so I’m happy to help.
UBITENNIS: Do you know his family?
EVANS: Yes.
UBITENNIS: Were they the ones who hired you?
EVANS: Yeah, he has help from the LTA as well. The conversation, the agent, everyone has an agent now.
UBITENNIS: You didn’t have an agent?
EVANS: No, not at 20.
UBITENNIS: When did you start to have an agent?
EVANS: Maybe when I was 200 (in the world) or something.
UBITENNIS: For someone like you, who has played in majors and made around $10 million. What is pushing you to do this role?
EVANS: He’s from where I’m from and he was struggling at the start of the year. He changed coach and I started by accident, just helping. Then he started doing pretty well and playing some tournaments; he listened a lot. So I said, okay, we go for some weeks.
He’s a very relaxed person. I like him first and foremost as a person, and I think he has a good chance of becoming a good tennis player.
UBITENNIS: Is he the most interesting prospect of British tennis being 20 years old?
EVANS: Right now, yeah. Probably for his age, yeah, but this is the thing. We don’t care about age. Juniors is juniors. Junior Wimbledon didn’t win him that match there (at this week’s Challenger event).
