A journeyman tennis star who thrashed Novak Djokovic said he was spurred to win because the World No.1 showed up late

• Dan Evans dumped Novak Djokovic out of the Monte Carlo Masters in style on Thursday.
• The British No.1 said he was spurred on by the fact Djokovic showed up late for the match.
• "He kept me waiting at the start of the match in the changing rooms a little bit," Evans said.

British tennis player Dan Evans secured the biggest victory of his career so far on Thursday, unceremoniously dumping world No.1 Novak Djokovic out of the Monte Carlo Masters in straight sets.

That victory, Evans said, was partly due to his opponent's lack of punctuality.

Speaking to broadcaster Amazon Prime TV after the win, Evans claimed Djokovic showed up late for the match and kept him waiting. That, he said, got him "fired up" and pushed him extra hard to victory.

"He kept me waiting at the start of the match in the changing rooms a little bit," Evans said. "It was a little annoying, so I was ready to go from that. It got me a little extra fired up."

World No.33 Evans' 6-4, 7-5 win was his first career win against a top six opponent - the first time that a Brit had beaten any world No.1 on clay, and was Djokovic's first defeat of 2021.

"It's one against one and you've gotta see who wins and that's what I was telling myself," Evans said after the match.

"He gave me some cheap ones today which he never normally does, so I was a little lucky there but I am just really happy with coming through."

Victory was all the more impressive given Evans' reputation for being pretty bad on clay.

He has only ever won two matches on clay at ATP Tour level, according to the Daily Telegraph, while The Guardian newspaper notes that he is "widely considered to be one of the weakest clay-court players in the top 100."

For his part, Djokovic blamed himself for his loss, acknowledging that Evans was just better than him on the day.

"That's been one of the worst performances I can remember in many years.

"I don't want to take anything away from his win, but from my side, I just felt awful on the court overall. Just nothing worked. It's one of those days."

Djokovic's lack of punctuality in Monte Carlo is not the first time he's been notably late for a match in 2021.

During preparations for the Australian Open in January, Djokovic pulled out of an exhibition tournament just before it was scheduled to begin, only to turn up for his match anyway - half an hour late as the second set was about to start.