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Commentator swears on air in Evans win

Dan Evans was handed a wildcard into the Aegon Championships © Getty Images

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A commentator was caught on air repeating a swear word from Britain's Dan Evans during his win over Guido Pella in the first round of the Aegon Championships, as British No. 2 James Ward suffered defeat after missing two match points against Ivan Dodig.

Evans was handed a wildcard into the event and he justified his inclusion by seeing off Pella 6-3 6-1. But it was a win that did not come without moments of alarm, and controversy. Early in the contest, Evans required treatment on a groin problem after losing his footing when attempting to retrieve a ball.

Upon the resumption, Evans failed to get a ball back into play and was heard to shout 'make the f*****g ball'.

The commentator, working for Eurosport, felt his microphone was turned off and discussed the Evans outburst with his fellow commentator. Unfortunately, the microphone was on and the expletive went out on air - for which the commentators apologised when informed that it had gone out live.

Evans regrouped from the fall and produced some fine play on the slick, new grass surface at Queen's. After squandering a number of chances, he broke mid-way through the first set and never looked back.

Having taken the first set, he worked a break at the start of the second as Pella produced an awful opening service game. Pella also had real problems keeping his feet and slipped on a number of occasions at the start of the second.

Some brilliant defending in the third game earned Evans a second break of serve and his sixth game on the spin. Pella stopped the rot in the fifth game of the second set, but Evans wrapped up the win shortly afterwards.

"I have felt good for a few weeks now and have been raring to go on grass," Evans said . "I got three games under my belt in Nottingham and came into the match feeling pretty confident."

However, Ward failed to join his compatriot in the second round as he went down 6-7(8) 7-6(2) 7-6(2) to Croat Dodig.

World No. 257 Ward took the opener on a tie-break despite missing two set points at 6-5 up, but was left to rue missed chances as he surrendered his own serve and missed two points for the match at 5-3 in the second.

Dodig seized momentum to level via another tie-break, but found himself a break down to the Brit early in the deciding set. With Ward serving for the match, the world No. 54 found the grit to force a third tie-break and won to set up a second round meet with defending champion Marin Cilic.

Tenth seed Grigor Dimitrov survived a scare against Dudi Sela, winning a deciding set tie-break to advance to the second round as the light faded around Centre.

'Baby Fed', under the watchful eye of girlfried and beaten French Open finalist Maria Sharapova, dropped the first set to the world No. 88 6-4, but recovered to level by taking the second.

Dimitrov, ranked 28th in the world, was broken late on in the decider but responded immediately to break back and then hold for a narrow lead. Sela levelled before working his way back in the tie-break but the Bulgarian ultimately proved too strong.

Elsewhere, Benoit Paire overcame British qualifier Jamie Baker 7-5 6-2 in just over an hour, while Xavier Malisse fought off Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-4 5-7 6-4 to book his place in the second round.

Former world No. 1 and two-time grand slam winner Lleyton Hewitt had to come from a set down to see off American world No. 97 Michael Russell 4-6 6-1 6-3 in just less than two hours on Centre.

British wildcard Edward Corrie was beaten in straight sets by world No. 116 Sergiy Stakhovsky.

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