Daniel Evans lost in the first round of the 2023 Roland Garros but it was mostly his foot fault that overshadowed the match.
The experienced Brit was beaten by Thanasi Kokkinakis in three sets, but in the second set, it appeared that Evans was getting back into the match. However, after he was called for a foot fault, everything changed in the match.
The Australian started his comeback in the second set, eventually winning the match in straight sets. Evans was never able to recover and after the match, he called the moment disruptive and wrong.
"Disruptive, wrong, a few other things you could say about it. Then, yeah, and then 15-30 or 30-15 he hits. I serve on the line. His net cord goes over."
He also opened up a topic that players often talk about, while they are held financially responsible for their mistakes, it's not the case with the umpires.
"Yeah, it's what it is, isn't it? It's the game. But, once again, the players are held responsible, but the umpires and line judges are not held responsible."
"I'll be getting fined, obviously, for breaking the water bottle. We'll just go through the same cycle again, yeah. Never even. I obviously knew it was a rule, but tend to know where my feet are, where I'm standing."
Evans admitted that the incident threw him off and that he couldn't focus on his serve as much after that. He was always concerned about where his feet were, preventing him from fully focusing on his serve.
"It obviously threw me quite a bit because I didn't then want to be serving from -- yeah, it just totally threw me where I was then serving from. My technique sort of got thrown out. Yeah, it was difficult from then on."
"I sort of lost all trust in where my feet were. It's a very minor thing, but it became a pretty big thing in my head. It was then difficult to get away from that, especially on second serve because I just didn't feel I knew where I was on the court."
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