Evan Above: Hoyt’s Wimbledon Wonderland Continues As He Reaches Quarter-Finals

Evan Hoyt’s epic Wimbledon adventure is continuing well into the second week after he reached the quarter finals of the mixed doubles.

The Llanelli-born player and partner Eden Silva’s produced a superb comeback to beat Belgium’s Joran Vliegen and Saisai Zheng of China in the third round.

The GB pair triumphed 5-7 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 after a two hour eight minute long battle on Court No 2 at the all England club.

Hoyt, making his senior bow at the tournament, is the first Welsh player to reach the quarter-finals since Bridgend-born Gerald Battrick reached the doubles quarter-finals in 1975.

Evan Hoyt in doubles action at Wimbledon on Saturday.

Hoyt, hoping to get an even better court for the last eight game, added: “It’s really good playing out there on Court 2 in front of a big crowd, but everyone dreams of playing Centre (Court) or even Court 1.

“If we could get that, then I certainly wouldn’t complain.

“They (Vliegen and Zheng) really pushed us today. In fact that was probably the toughest match we’ve had yet. But we knew a bit about them and our plan came off.

“You learn things about yourself in a first set like that. I’m really proud of the way we came back, especially the way Eden played. Yeah, why can’t we go all the way?”

Vliegen has good doubles form this year having reached the quarter-final at the French Open, whilst his partner has twice reached the doubles semi-finals at the Australian Open and this year reached the final at Roland Garros.

But Hoyt and 23-year-old Londoner Silva conjured up another inspired victory having already defied expectation by winning the opening two rounds.

The duo had booked a spot in the second week with a straight sets win over Divij Silva and Yingying Duan having overcome doubles legends Leander Paes and Sam Stosur in the first round.