Dan Evans has hit out at tennis rival Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, calling him “pathetic” after the Spaniard complained about an “extremely early start” of 11am.

Davidovich Fokina was scheduled first on court to face Jakub Mensik at the National Bank Open in Toronto, with all other courts beginning play at 12.30pm.

The world No 19 subsequently posted an open letter to the ATP via his Instagram story.

“We’re staying one hour from the club, which means we have to wake up extremely early to arrive in good condition,” said Davidovich in the post. “Once again, it’s clear that players are not taken into consideration. The ATP always promises they’ll fix things, but nothing ever changes.

“The ATP always promises they’ll fix things, but nothing ever changes. This isn’t the first time it happens, and when you’re inside, you realise that it is not as great as it looks from the outside,” he added.

Evans, 35, reposted the Spaniard’s letter on his own Instagram page telling him to “wake up and play”.

“The world wakes up and works 9-5, even 8-6. Pathetic,” he added.

Evans, who is currently ranked 154 in the world, is not participating at the National Bank Open, with his most recent match having been a loss to Corentin Moutet at the last-16 of the Citi Open in Washington.

The ATP Tour continues with the Cincinnati Open on August 7, with the final Grand Slam of the season coming between 24 August and 7 September as the US Open takes place in New York.

In addition to Davidovich Fokina, Leylah Fernandez spoke out against the Canadian Open.

The 23-year-old travelled to Montreal to play in her home tournament. This came just 48 hours after Fernandez won the Citi Open in Washington DC.

Post-match, Fernandez made it clear that she was not happy with the tournament’s scheduling. “Regarding the short turnaround, I received a lot of promises from scheduling about giving me maybe the night match, and I did not receive that.

“So that kind of hurt me because I was very looking forward to be playing at night.”

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