Delray Beach | Evans and Broady stumble at first hurdle.

Any hopes of some British progress at the Delray Beach Open, an ATP 250 level event, were dashed at the first hurdle with Dan Evans crashing out 7-5 6-0 to Australia’s Jordan Thompson and Liam Broady losing 6-2 1-6 6-1 to another Aussie, Rinki Hijikata.

Evans, the British No.2, seeded seventh has now won only one match this season and holds a disappointing 1-3 win-loss record for the season.

World No.42 Thompson edged a tight first set by breaking Evans to love at a crucial point to gain a 6-5 lead to give himself the chance of serving out, which he duly did.

With the wind now firmly in his sails, Thompson sailed through the second to hand Evans an embarrassing bagel, landing five aces and hitting nine winners.

The Australian will now face Nicolas Moreno de Alboran, the American qualifier who defeated his countryman the wildcard Aleksander Kovacevic 6-2 7-6(3) for a place in the quarter-finals.

Meanwhile Broady, the world 121, got off to a poor start in his opener, losing his first service game after nine-minutes to give Hijikata the start he wanted,

Broady hit back in the second, racing into a 3-0 lead before breaking for a second time to square things up and force a decider.

But No. 84-ranked Hijikata recovered in the third winning five consecutive games to clinch a victory that earned him second round clash with Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi, who battled past Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka 4-6 6-4 6-3.
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