He was made to sweat a little by the heavily-supported local man but Scott Evans dug deep once more to continue his history-making run and make the last 16 of the badminton in Rio, writes Daragh Ó Conchúir.
And just as he did after the tremendous defeat of his group’s top seed Marc Zweibler on Friday, Evans tore off his short in exhilaration.
The 28-year-old has endured plenty of tough times in the 12 years since he left school and his Dundrum home to base himself in Copenhagen.
That displayed his singularity of approach and his ambition, but in his mind, with Denmark the European stronghold of the game, it was a necessary move if he wanted to reach the top level.
He suffered terribly from homesickness, but has long since established himself as Ireland’s greatest player, even before his feats in Rio.
Like women’s No 1 Chloe Magee, Evans is participating in his third Olympics but had endured a torrid period since London, splitting up with his “father figure, coach and best friend” Jim Laugesen after nearly eight years.
With “one of the best players ever in men’s singles” Peter Gade becoming national coach in England, Evans decided to train there, using up his savings as he commuted from Denmark. That lasted until Gade got the national job in Denmark and they worked together very successfully as Evans’ world ranking rose to 23.
But Gade got a job in France and since then, Evans has been pretty much on his own in a coaching sense.
Injuries and funding issues also became a problem and he had to sit out four weeks at the start of this year with a shoulder problem.
As a result, his form was deeply affected and his ranking plummeted to 72nd.
By his own admission, Evans can brood a lot on the negatives.
“I feel like sometimes, the more it’s happening to me – of course I find ways to deal with it but it knocks me even more every time it happens,” he said in an interview with the Irish Examiner.
“And of course I’m not getting younger either.”
The support from Badminton Ireland has been vital and he arrived in Rio in fine fettle, as evidenced by his stunning come-from-behind victory over Zwiebler.
The challenge was a completely different one against Brazilian Ygor Coelho De Oliveira, not least because now there was a significant degree of expectation on him. The involvement of a vociferous crowd would take some getting used to as well.
He dealt with the expectation easily, initially at least, cruising to a first-set victory 21-8, imposing his power game on De Oliveira.
The home favourite got the crowd into the game in the second set though, helped by a slew of unforced errors from Evans. Eight consecutive points pushed the 19-year-old 11-2 ahead.
The Dubliner was galvanised by his coaches though and got himself back into the set at 17-15 down but some excellent defence edged it for De Oliveira on a 21-19 scoreline.
It was do or die now and just as he did on Friday, Evans found the wherewithal to take the honours, leaving no room for doubt as he cruised to victory in the decider, 21-8.
“Playing with almost a full crowd against a good player, it was difficult,” Evans told RTÉ afterwards.
“The atmosphere was absolutely insane, something I had never experienced before. I had never experienced booing before. It was different and I had to adapt to that. I was really struggling at times.”
Evans’ likely opponent in the round of 16 tomorrow is world number four, Viktor Axelsen from Denmark.
