Evans beats Harris to move closer to French Open place

French Open 2025

Dates: 25 May-8 June Venue: Roland Garros, Paris

Dan Evans beat fellow Briton Billy Harris in the first round of French Open qualifying to move a step closer to the main draw.

The 34-year-old Evans fought back from 5-2 down in the first set to beat Harris 7-5 6-3 in Paris.

Fran Jones also progressed in the women’s competition, but Heather Watson’s hopes of contesting an 11th French Open are over.

Watson lost 7-6 (7-2) 6-2 to Australian Daria Saville, but Jones will face Japan’s Mai Hontama in the second qualifying round after defeating Croatia’s Lea Boskovic 6-2 6-3.

Jan Choinski exited in the opening round of men’s qualifying, losing 6-4 7-6 (7-5) to Italian Giulio Zeppieri.

Players have to come through three qualifying rounds to reach the main draw.

The French Open – the second Grand Slam of the year – begins on Sunday.

Evans, ranked 215th in the world, is targeting a return to the top 100 after slipping down the rankings.

It is less than two years since he reached a career-high of 21 but, now in the twilight of his career, he has predominantly been playing his tennis on the ATP Challenger Tour, which sits below the main tour.

Evans has won just one match in seven main-draw appearances in Paris and the first set against Harris threatened to quickly run away from him.

But, having gone down an early break, Evans held to stay in the match, before turning the set on its head to lead as the unforced errors crept in to Harris’ game.

And it was again Evans who finished the stronger in set two, closing out the match with another double break from 3-3 to complete a straight-set victory.

Momentum swung back and forth in the opening set between Watson and Saville, with the Briton rallying to a 4-2 lead after initially going a break down, only for Saville to level up.

Watson, ranked four places higher than Saville at 130, battled back from 40-0 down on serve to move within one game from the opening set, but failing to take her first set point proved crucial.

A tie-break was confirmed by another exchange of breaks – but not before Watson initially refused to continue the match after being given a second time violation.

She claimed she had been waiting for a ball to be returned to her, rather than deliberately delaying the point. While the chair umpire disagreed, Saville stepped in and asked the umpire to give Watson her first serve back.

The Australian former world number 20 dominated the tie-break and carried that momentum into the second set, quickly establishing a 3-0 lead.

Jones, ranked 113th, produced a dominant display to see off Boskovic – losing serve for the first time when serving for the match before recovering to close it out at the second attempt.

The 24-year-old is aiming to qualify for the second overseas slam of her career, having reached the Australian Open main draw in 2021.

At the Strasburg Open, world number 10 Paula Badosa and former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina both reached the fourth round.

Spain’s Badosa progressed after opponent Marie Bouzkova retired, while 12th-ranked Kazakh Rybakina defeated Wang Xinyu 6-1 6-3.