At 344 in the world Evans is ranked almost 300 places behind the No59 Rochus but the 21-year-old from Birmingham pushed his experienced opponent all the way and may well have won had he taken the closest of tie-breaks in the third set.

Josh Goodall’s 6-7, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 defeat by Steve Darcis earlier had set the stage for Evans again to be the hero but Rochus was a step up from either Lukas Lacko or Martin Klizan, his conquests in the Slovakia match.

Evans picked up where he left off, though, coming back from 40-0 to break Rochus in the opening game and then repeating the feat to win the first set with a stunning forehand down the line.

As if to emphasise the quality of Rochus, the 31-year-old has been in the top 100 for the majority of the last 12 years and has won three of his five meetings with the world No1, Novak Djokovic.

The Belgian showed his quality at the start of the second, reeling off four games in a row after Evans missed a chance to break, and, although the home favourite pulled one back straight away, he could not retrieve the second.

Evans was starting to show his frustration, smacking the net when he missed a volley that would have given him a point for 4-4, but he continued to match his opponent in the third set.

A crunch backhand volley saved a rare break point in the fifth game and, when he was finally broken at the fourth attempt to leave Rochus serving for a two sets to one lead, he broke straight back to love.

In truth that was more to do with some tight play from the Belgian but he eventually prevailed in the most tense of tie-breaks.

There was never more than a point between them but Evans could not take advantage of two set points and Rochus took his first after a linesman seemed to change his mind in calling an Evans forehand wide.

It was desperately close but Evans put the disappointment behind him by breaking in the opening game of the fourth set.

Both players looked very weary and sought to shorten the points but that policy cost Evans as a poor volley and netted drop shot gave Rochus the break back for 4-4, two games after he had hit two aces to deny the Belgian.

Evans was now on the brink. He quickly found himself facing two match points at 4-5 and a cramping Rochus took the first when his opponent missed a forehand.

Ross Hutchins and Colin Fleming must now win the doubles rubber to give Britain hope of coming back to win the tie, something they have done only once before from 2-0. That was in 1930 against Germany.

source: guardian.co.uk

Wayne Rooney threaded a ball into the QPR area where Ashley Young, feeling a hand placed on him by Shaun Derry, went down precipitately. Perhaps Derry should not have touched Young, who will reject any suggestion of a dive, and maybe Mason was correct to point to the spot and show Derry the red card, the seventh of QPR’s relegation-haunted season. Yet the captain’s sending off made it a triple whammy of suspect officiating as Richards, perfectly in place, had failed to spot that Young was a few feet offside; had he flagged for that, QPR would have been punting the free-kick away instead of restarting 1-0 and a man down after Rooney had slotted his 29th goal of the season.

The penalty killed off both United’s nerves and any hopes Manchester City might have had of a result that would place the destiny of the title back in their hands before they kicked off at Arsenal.

“You should have confidence that the referees will get the key decisions right,” QPR’s manager, Mark Hughes, said. “Just lately a lot of managers have lost faith in them.” The club is expected to appeal against Derry’s dismissal.

Ferguson agreed the officials got the incident wrong and of his side’s title hopes he said: “It is important us winning today whatever happens at the Emirates. We will just have to wait. But we have done our job.”

Rio Ferdinand, who had to deal with few scares in the United defence, concurred with his manager’s assessment of the penalty. Regarding their ascendancy over City, whom they previously trailed for most of the season, he said: “We didn’t think about getting back into this position [but] we never doubted we could put a run of games together.

“You need to get momentum at this stage of the season, that is the most important thing, making sure you get a run of games together. We have picked another one off and hopefully we can keep that going.”

United dominated, each half a game of attack versus defence that featured Paul Scholes spraying passes to colleagues at will, although Ferguson had a point when he said Derry’s marching orders blunted United as an attacking force.

“I’m happy we’ve won, it’s the name of the game at the moment,” the manager said. “But to be honest the sending-off gave us too much of a comfort zone. I don’t think we had a shot at goal in the first half. At least in the second half we improved on that part and had lots of shots on goal and a few chances.”

The visitors had their moments, though these were rare. In the first half David de Gea made his sole save of the contest when Adel Taarabt’s deflected shot looped under his crossbar, and the story of United’s dominance is found in the passing statistics: 664 completed from 734 attempts against the 210 managed from 269 made by their visitors.

Nevertheless, before Scholes added the second goal there was still the niggling possibility of QPR scoring an equaliser, as Ferguson acknowledged. “Absolutely. It only takes a second to lose a goal or score one. We kept missing at vital moments – Danny Welbeck was through, we hit the post and the bar,” he said of chances for Michael Carrick and Rafael da Silva, respectively.

“The second goal from Paul Scholes calmed everyone down. He’s capable of that and should perhaps have been having more shots. But we just didn’t shoot enough from outside the box today.”

Regarding a result that makes it eight straight league wins, Ferguson added: “I am pleased with that. There is good consistency in terms of the defending, although today we did not have a lot to do in terms of defending. The other good thing is there is also a game less. There are only six left now, three at home and three away.”

Scholes’s decisive strike arrived on 68 minutes. A failure to control the ball by Taarabt allowed Rafael to feed the maestro and his 25-yard bullet beat Paddy Kenny to his right. As Ferguson mentioned, Carrick crashed a late effort off the post but the abiding memory will be of Young being booed by the visiting supporters every time he touched the ball.

While they had a case, it is now even more emphatically United’s title to lose as they travel to Wigan Athletic on Wednesday.

source: guardian.co.uk

The Football Association will await the referee’s report to see whether mention is made of that first-half incident – no foul was awarded – though, with six games still to play, Mancini will not call again upon a player who has increasingly become a liability. “Mario should have been sent off after 20 minutes,” said the City manager. “I’ve finished my words for him. I’ve finished. I love him as a guy, as a player. I know him. He’s not a bad guy and is a fantastic player. But, at this moment, I’m very sorry for him because he continues to lose his talent, his quality.

“I hope, for him, he can understand that he’s in a bad way for his future. And he can change his behaviour in the future. But I’m finished. We have six games left and he will not play. It’s not sure he’ll [be available] because he could get a three- or four-game ban. Now, I need to be sure that I have always 11 players on the pitch. With Mario, it’s always a big risk. Every time we risk one [man] being sent off, even if he can also score in the last minute.”

Mancini admitted that José Mourinho’s assessment of the striker as “unmanageable” may prove prophetic, with team-mates visibly frustrated as Balotelli’s second foul on Bacary Sagna prompted the late red. City were quick to distance themselves from suggestions that there had been a physical confrontation between players in the dressing room after the game, but when asked whether he would now seek to sell a player who has scored 17 times this season, Mancini said: “Probably.” He was reportedly more explicit on Italian television, saying: “We will sell him.”

“I am disappointed in him,” added Mancini. “He is young and he continues to make a lot of mistakes. I have punished him during the season – it’s totally false that I have different behaviour with Mario than the other players – and he still needs to change his behaviour if he wants to improve. I’ve seen players with huge talent finish in two or three years because they do not change. I hope, for him, he will.”

City’s title challenge effectively fizzled out in defeat in front of the chairman, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, with Mancini’s side having now mustered only one win in six away games. Yet the Italian insisted he remains the man to bring the title back to the club. “When I arrived, City were eighth,” he said. “After six months, we were fighting for a Champions League place. Last year we were close to second and won the FA Cup and, today, we have 15 points more than this time last year.

“When you start a project it’s important you improve, and we have. But we need more experience and to change something. We’ve only worked here for two years. Now the title is more difficult, but we have 18 points to play for and a derby at home. United have had an incredible run in the last two months. But, in football, it can change. Ten days ago we were one point behind. Today it’s eight points. United have more experience than us, so probably it’s difficult, but until it’s impossible, we keep going.”

Arsène Wenger, whose side have returned to third place, conceded that Manchester United are now likely to retain their title. “In France we say that when a horse smells its stable it’s difficult to stop him,” said the Arsenal manager. “It’s not completely over but, eight points behind with six games to go, they can smell that stable.”

source: guardian.co.uk