British number three Dan Evans has defeated home favourite Bernard Tomic in straight sets to make it through to the fourth round of the Australian Open for the first time in his career.
The 26-year-old was made to work hard to claim the scalp of the world number 26 but eventually wrapped up a 7-5 7-6(2) 7-6(3) victory in two hours 48 minutes in Melbourne.
Evans now joins Sir Andy Murray in the next stage of the competition after the world number one claimed an easy victory over Sam Querrey earlier on Tuesday.
The first set was a tale of the breaks, as the two exchanged no fewer than five before Evans got his nose in front and took it 7-5.
Evans kept the momentum going and broke straight away in the second, quickly running into a 3-1 lead, but the Aussie was able to level things up at 5-5 after saving two set points. Evans took the ensuing tie-break with ease to put him within one set of achieving a career-best performance at a Grand Slam.
There was little to separate the two in the third set as rain lashed down at the Hisense Arena and once again a tie-break was required. Once again though, Evans was not for turning and made the most of three set points to seal his progression.
The result marks the first time that Great Britain have had two male finalists in the fourth round of a Grand Slam since 2002, when both Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski progressed at Wimbledon.
Evans's reward for defeating Tomic is a tough tie against world number 12 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Neil Wilkes
