Evan Hoyt Tastes First Wimbledon Win . . . And Wants More

By Owen Morgan

Evan Hoyt and his playing partner Eden Silva overcame two of the  most successful doubles players in the world  to claim a place in the second round on their senior Wimbledon mixed doubles debut.

The Welshman and his London-born team-mate beat India’s Leander Paes and Australian Sam Stosur, who have won 23 Grand Slam doubles titles between them, in their first round match on Friday.

After stepping off Court 16 at the home of tennis, a beaming Hoyt said: “It was amazing to get through that one today.

“I mean, playing Leander Pays and Sam Stosur, who have both won multiple Grand Slam titles.”

Both Paes and Stosur are former doubles world number ones and have six Wimbledon mixed doubles titles between them.

Hoyt added: “I definitely didn’t wake up feeling I was going to come out on top today. I knew we had a chance if we played well, but it’s amazing to come out and win that one.”

Hoyt, from Llanelli, was full of praise for his playing partner after the pair clinched the 6-4 2-6 6-4 success in the deciding third set.

“Eden played some unbelievable stuff to break at 4-4 in the third and we held our nerve then to close it out,” said the 24-year-old.

And the right-hander was delighted with the way he served to close out the match for his first senior Wimbledon win and the first by a Welsh player since Sarah Loosemore in 1990.

“To be honest with you, I was fairly composed,” said Hoyt. “As I was stepping up to the line I was just focussing on hitting my spot on the serve and I think I made five first serves in that last game – all where I wanted them to go, so I thought I did a fairly good job of it.

“I was just trying to focus on the process rather than the whole situation and getting ahead of myself, which helps.”

Hoyt and Silva have another tough challenge in the second round where they will face number 16 seeds Divij Sharan and Yingying Duan.

Thirty-three-year-old Sharan, from India, is a former Wimbledon doubles quarter-finalists, while his Chinese partner Duan, aged 33, was runner-up at Roland Garos earlier this year.

Hoyt says he and Silva will take confidence from their victory against Paes and Stosur going into their second round encounter.  “We’re going to take it one match at a time,  but we’ll definitely grow in confidence after having won that match because that pair was not an easy pair at all.

“So I know we can go out there and put another good performance out and hopefully come out with a win in the next match.”

The match against Sharan and Duan was scheduled for Saturday afternoon.