Andy Murray wins comfortably but Dan Evans outshines compatriot at Australian Open

Both men are into the third round in Melbourne

Evans came back from a set down against the former US Open champion (Getty)

Like every other British player of the last decade Dan Evans has grown used to living in the shadow of Andy Murray, but for once the 26-year-old from Birmingham upstaged his Davis Cup colleague.

Both men reached the third round of the Australian Open, but it was Evans who stole the show with a stunning 3-6 7-5 6-3 6-3 victory over the world No 7, Marin Cilic, to earn a meeting with Australia’s Bernard Tomic. Murray, meanwhile, brushed aside the Russian teenager Andrey Rublev, winning 6-3, 6-0, 6-2, though the world No 1 suffered an ankle injury in the third set. Murray next plays Sam Querrey, of the United States.

“I think I played as well as I can play today,” Evans said after claiming the best win of his career. “I was really pleased with how I played, especially towards the end of the match.”

The last time Britain had two men in the third round here was in 2002, when Tim Henman beat Greg Rusedski. If Kyle Edmund beats Pablo Carreno Busta on Thursday Britain will have three men through to the last 32 for the first time since the tournament's draw was expanded to 128 players.

While Murray was setting about his task in Rod Laver Arena, which is the main show court here at Melbourne Park, Evans was completing his victory in the comparative outpost of Court 3.

For followers of the world No 51, his performance was not a total surprise. Last week Evans recorded his first victory over a top 10 opponent when he beat Dominic Thiem and went on to reach his first tour final at the Sydney International before losing to Gilles Muller.

Over the last 18 months Evans has climbed more than 700 places in the world rankings and troubled some of the world’s best players. He had a match point against Stan Wawrinka, the eventual champion, at last year’s US Open.

This latest victory, against a player coached by Jonas Bjorkman, who used to work with Murray, was Evans’ best yet. From a set and a break down, the Briton outplayed Cilic, a former US Open champion.

Evans has played a more aggressive game in his rise through the ranks over the last year and a half, but on this occasion he adopted a different strategy, even if it might have been forced on him by the power of his opponent’s ball-striking.

Cilic, who uses his 6ft 6in frame to hit some huge serves and ground strokes, is at his best when opponents give him pace, but Evans regularly chipped his returns and made more use of his backhand slice than usual. Forced to generate his own power, Cilic made 69 unforced errors.

Nevertheless it had seemed in the early stages that Evans might suffer the same fate that he had in losing the Sydney final last weekend, when he was unable to handle Muller’s big serve. Cilic hit six unreturned serves in his first two service games and for good measure broke Evans at the first attempt. The Croatian took the first set in just 33 minutes.

It is only the second time Evans has beaten someone inside the top 10 (Getty)

Cilic also made the first break in the second set, but Evans soon worked his way back into contention. The Briton broke back to level at 3-3, saved three break points when he served at 5-5 and then broke again to take the set, having gone to set point with a superb backhand cross-court pass winner.

The momentum was now with the world No 51, who made the only break of the third set to lead 3-1. Cilic saved two set points in holding serve for 3-5, but Evans served out to love in the following game to put himself firmly in charge.

Cilic, nevertheless, did not go down without a fight. The Croatian, a former semi-finalist here, forced eight break points in a marathon second game at the start of the fourth set, only for Evans to save them all. Rubbing salt in the wound, the Briton broke serve in the next game as Cilic double-faulted on break point.

With nerves perhaps starting to jangle, the next two games also went against serve, but Evans, who had never won a match in the main draw here until this week, broke the pattern by holding to lead 4-2. At 3-5 Cilic went 0-40 down, after which he saved the first two match points but netted a forehand on the third.

“It was great to win,” Evans said afterwards. “Getting across the line against him over five sets is a big thing for me.

Murray fell awkwardly on his ankle in the first set (Getty)

“I knew I could win, but there was no point sprouting off that I could win. He was giving me a good hiding at the start. I just had to hang in there. Obviously it got quite cold out there and he struggled to hit through me.”

Evans said that he had had to work his way back into the match after making a slow start. “I was a bit taken aback at how hard he hit the ball,” Evans said. “I had to get in the match and hang in at the start of the second set.”

Murray, who had made a patchy start to his campaign in beating Illya Marchenko on Monday, was in much better form against Rublev, a 19-year-old Russian of whom big things are expected.

There was only one break point in the first set, which Murray converted in the sixth game, but the Scot turned on the style in the second set. In the third game of the third set, however, Murray fell at the back of the court and turned his right ankle. He called for the trainer at the next changeover, but did not appear to have too many problems in seeing out the victory.

“I don’t think I've done too much damage,” Murray said afterwards. “It’s not too bad. It’s all right. It's just a bit sore. I'll see how it feels when I get up in the morning. It can sometimes swell overnight.”

Murray is confident he will be fit for his third-round match on Friday (Getty)

The world No 1 was pleased with his performance. “It was better than the first match,” he said. “I was hitting the ball a bit cleaner. I was hitting through the court more. I hit more winners. I was able to get myself up to the net more. I served way better, too. That helps you and allows you to dictate more points.”

Asked about his upcoming third-round meeting with Querrey, who beat Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon last year, Murray said: “He’s obviously a dangerous player. He has a big serve. He goes for it.”

Murray watched some of Evans’ match and was impressed. “He did great,” Murray said. “He was moving really well, fighting really hard. He had to do a lot of defending out there from the bits that I saw, but he was moving well and putting in a lot of effort. It’s obviously a great win for him, the biggest of his career I’d imagine.”