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- Exclusive: Evan Above, Wales Ace Hoyt On His Staggering Climb Up Rankings…And The Next Challenge
Exclusive by Owen Morgan
Welsh tennis star Evan Hoyt has no intention of resting on his laurels after rising a staggering 789 places in the ATP world rankings since the start of this year.
Singles and doubles tournament wins in Australia over the past month have seen the right-hander rise to a career high of 456.
The Llanelli product’s new ranking surpasses his previous best of 542, set back in 2016 before a serious shoulder injury put the promising youngster out of the game for 18 months.
At the turn of this year, Hoyt was ranked 1245 in the world, but a clean bill of health and some excellent form has seen him rocket up the rankings.
But the 23-year-old, who told Dai Sport in May he felt a top 500 place was achievable by the end of this year, is aiming even higher.
Speaking from Australia, Hoyt said: “I’ve achieved that now and goals always change.
“It’s great to be able to say I achieved that goal but hopefully by the end of the year I can get up into the top 400.”
Breaking into the world’s top 500 players will bring Hoyt the opportunity to play more tournaments on the ATP Challenger Tour, which is a step up from the ITF Futures events which he has been playing so far in Australia.
His next two events Down Under will be ATP Challenger events in Victoria and Canberra later this month.
Hoyt is delighted with the form he has shown since his arrival in the Southern Hemisphere, which saw him win a doubles title with American playing partner Dusty Boyer in Cairns last month.
The Welshman then moved on to Darwin where he was beaten in the singles final before travelling on to Brisbane where he won his first ITF Futures singles title since 2016.
Hoyt said: “It’s been great so far; I’ve put together some good wins and played a lot of matches.”
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On reaching his highest ever ranking in both singles and doubles, where he is now ranked 379, Hoyt said: “It’s exciting.
“I’ve not got huge amount of points to defend through the next year or so, but hopefully I can build on that and keep going.
“I’ll definitely start playing more Challenger tournaments over this next year. My next two tournaments out here in Australia are Challenger events. They have bigger prize money and bigger ranking points available.”
Hoyt’s rise up the world rankings means he has now broken into the top 10 of British players, which will also open new opportunities.
“If I can get my ranking up to be one of the top Brits, there are always opportunities during the grass court season come Wimbledon time.
“They generally do wild card opportunities on ranking, so if I can be one of the top Brits my name will probably go forward towards a few wildcards in the Challengers and over the grass season. It definitely brings opportunities.”
It has been a difficult road back to top form for Hoyt. As a junior he reached 53 in the ITF Junior World Rankings and was a doubles semi-finalist at Junior Wimbledon.
He helped Great Britain win the Junior Davis Cup for first time, alongside Luke Bambridge and Kyle Edmund, Britain’s current number one.
At the start of 2016, having won two titles on the ITF Futures circuit – the third tier of professional tennis – Hoyt reached 542 in the ATP Singles rankings.
Then came the shoulder injury which put him out of the game for 18 months until last September when he finally managed to get back on court.
Since the start of 2018 he has started to climb back up the rankings, winning an ITF Futures doubles title with Boyer in Egypt.
In May, he enjoyed a morale-boosting singles title victory on home soil when he beat fellow Welshman and former coach Chris Lewis at the LTA British Tour Penarth Windsor event.
The following month he won an ITF doubles title in Spain with Patrik Niklas-Salminen, of Finland.
Hoyt admits there were times during the injury lay-off, and even since his return to playing ,that he feared he may not be able to reach the level he had once attained.
But now the Welsh number one feels he is back playing his best tennis, despite those past doubts. “Even having been back playing for a year, I never really felt like I was playing at the same level as I was before . . . until now really.
“So it’s taken me some time to get back there, but there were definitely some doubts along the way.”
