Great Britain's Dan Evans suffered yet another early exit at the French Open in a three-set defeat to Australia's Thanasi Kokkinakis in the first round.
The 33-year-old suffered his fifth first-round exit in seven years with a 6-4 6-4 6-4 loss to wildcard Kokkinakis, who sits 83 places lower than Evans in the ATP rankings.
On the back of four successive first-round eliminations in his first four French Open appearances, Evans won his first match at Roland Garros last year, defeating Francisco Cerundolo before a second-round exit to Mikael Ymer.
However, Evans could not build on that long-awaited win on the French clay, being broken in the seventh game against Kokkinakis after beating away four break points in the fifth.
The British number two threatened a fightback when he established a 4-1 lead in the second set, but a calamitous collapse saw Kokkinakis win five games on the spin to move one step closer to a second-round berth.
The pair traded breaks in the opening eight games of the third set, with Evans - who belatedly cut out the double faults - breaking back in the eighth but once again losing serve in the next game before Kokkinakis converted his second match point.
Cameron Norrie and Jack Draper are now the only Britons left in the French Open singles draw, and the former faces Frenchman Benoit Paire tomorrow morning before Draper meets Argentina's Tomas Etcheverry. body check tags ::
