Dan Evans is 35 years old, and for most of his tennis career has been battling to make the money he can. He has never come close to No. 1 and has just two career titles. He understands how most players have to grind from tournament to tournament to make much money.
So, when another player complains about the time they are having to play a match, Evans wants to hear none of it. He wants the other player to understand what a gift it is to play the sport. If changing one's sleeping hours is all that is needed, then do it.
This brings us to a situation where Evans became frustrated with 26-year-old Alejandro Davidovich Fokina after the Spaniard voiced his issue with having to play at 11 am ET at the Canadian Open. To be fair, 11 am is basically lunchtime, so the Spaniard's complaint is a bit odd.
Dan Evans drops some brutal truth on Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
It is not as if Davidovich Fokina was having to try to win a match that started at 7 am.
The Spaniard had a match scheduled at 11 am against young star Jakub Mensik, while other matches did not begin until 12:30 pm. Davidovich Fokina posted on social media that he was having to stay an hour away from the tournament venue, and he was having to get up extra-early because of the "early" court time.
His message to the ATP was long and rambling and, in part, included, "Once again, it's clear that players are not taken into consideration. The ATP always promises they'll fix things, but nothing ever changes."
He also mentioned the stress of having to get up "extremely" early. There was no specific mention, but maybe he meant 7 am or 8 am? That certainly isn't very early compared to how early much of the world has to get up.
Dan Evans responded to Davidovich Fokina's post, and, for all intents and purposes, spoke for the rest of the world when he wrote, "Wake up and play. The world wakes up and works 9-5, even 8-6. Pathetic."
Many of the responses from fans echoed Evans' sentiments. Perhaps next time, Davidovich Fokina should have a bit more self-awareness about how lucky he is to play tennis for a living.