Henry Searle and Dan Evans’ doubles dream came to an end as they suffered a hard-fought three-set defeat in the first round at Wimbledon.
Wolverhampton ace Searle, who was crowned junior singles champion last year, and Birmingham star Evans, the current British No.3, had joined forces in a West Midlands partnership for the men’s doubles event in SW19.
But they were unable to battle past sixth seeds Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in their opening encounter, succumbing to a topsy-turvy 6-3 3-6 6-3 defeat.
The duo rallied to take the clash to a decider on Thursday evening before a decisive break from the Mexican and French duo dashed their hopes on Court 6.
Searle, 18, had made his senior Wimbledon debut earlier in the week where he impressed in a four-set defeat against Marcos Giron.
The Black Country star had taken the first set against the American but was unable to translate his storied exploits of 12 months ago – where he became the first British junior champion for 61 years – onto the senior stage.
Evans, 34, also crashed out in the first round of the singles as he went down against Alejandro Tabilo in controversial circumstances.
The former world No.21 had blasted the ‘powers that be in fancy jackets’ after he was asked to continue playing on Tuesday evening despite slippery conditions.
The match was eventually suspended until the following day, where Evans slumped to a straight sets 6-2 7-5 6-3 loss and extended his rotten run of failing to advance from the first round in any of the last three years.
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