Dan Evans will retire from tennis after this year's Wimbledon, drawing a line under a career that took him to a high of 21 in the world and made him one of Britain’s most recognisable men’s players. The 36-year-old said on Instagram that the sport has given him everything and that he has loved every single minute of being a professional tennis player.
The announcement lands with Wimbledon set to start on 29 June, leaving Evans in a race against the calendar as well as the tournament’s entry rules. He would need either to come through qualifying or be given a wildcard to appear in the main draw, and the committee that makes those invitations meets on Tuesday.
For British tennis, the timing gives the decision added weight. Evans won two ATP Tour-level titles, played 28 Davis Cup ties for Great Britain and was part of the 2015 team that ended a 79-year wait for the country’s first title. He also said representing Great Britain in Davis Cup and the Olympics was the greatest honour of his career, a sentiment shaped by a run that later included a quarter-final appearance with Andy Murray at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
That Olympic run carried a cost. Evans gave up 500 ranking points from the Washington Open to partner Murray in Paris, and the move came in a year when he has played just five professional matches and slid to 217th in the world. He has also failed to get through qualifying at the past three Grand Slams, which makes the question of a Wimbledon main-draw route more than a formality.
The two paths left are narrow, and neither is guaranteed. Evans received a wildcard for last year’s Wimbledon, but this time he is waiting on a Tuesday committee decision while knowing he can also earn his place the hard way in qualifying. However it ends, his farewell now has a date, and Britain’s recent Davis Cup generation is about to lose one of its most familiar names.
Evans thanked his family for their unwavering support through every high and low, and that may be the clearest frame for what comes next. If he gets one last look at Wimbledon, it will be as a player trying to finish on a high; if he does not, his final match may come before the main draw ever begins.
