British men’s tennis hits 30-year high as Evans enters top 100

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Britain will have four men in the top 100 of the ATP World Rankings on Monday after Dan Evans won the Taipei Challenger event.

Evans, who turns 26 this month, will join Andy Murray, Aljaz Bedene and Kyle Edmund in the elite top 100, guaranteeing himself entry to almost all the world’s biggest tournaments.

The move up the rankings comes after a solid season in tennis’s second-tier Challenger circuit. He finished runner-up to Edmund at an event in Dallas in February, won an event in Canada in March (beating another Brit, Edward Corrie, in the final) and has now won in Taipei.

Evans will move to 97th in the world; Murray is second, Bedene 59th and Edmund 89th. It is the first time in almost 30 years that a quartet of British players has been ranked in the top 100.

Evans’s progress marks a continued upturn in British tennis. The reigning Davis Cup holders have met a major target somewhat early: in 2010, they made it a target to have four British men in the world top 100 by September 2016.