Evan King doubles down on tennis

You might already know who Evan King is. Maybe from his freeform afro which are now long, flowing dreadlocks, or infamously being one of America’s top doubles players without a clothing sponsor, opting to wear either throwback Reebok shirts or personally embroidered tops from his fiancée’s brand, miscellaneous by sydgaw. Yet in 2014, Evan had no intention of picking up a tennis racquet professionally, ever again.

Evan King’s four years at the University of Michigan produced an indelible mark on the program. Ranked second in all-time singles and combined wins, King was slated to be a force on the pro circuit. After a little over a year on tour, however, the three-time All-American found himself back on campus with his professional tennis dreams in tatters.

“I just wasn't handling losing every week right,” King told TENNIS.com when reflecting on the early part of his career. “I was on a hamster wheel and wasn't doing that well. So then I was like, ‘I don't really like this.’ I had stopped with no intention of coming back.”

With most of his earnings going back into the sport, King returned to Ann Arbor in hopes of getting a head start on his retirement plans: coaching. Serving as a Volunteer Assistant Coach between 2014-2016, the Michigan Wolverine enjoyed his time back at the program, but something felt off. King felt “the itch to compete again.”

Get your ass back on the practice court, and keep building and keep growing.

As he began to train more seriously with the team, the two-time Big Ten Athlete of the Year received a rude wake up call after playing against a former rival of his, University of Illinois alum Dennis Novolo. He lost to Novolo in a one-set affair, 6-1—with Novolo thinking after the set that King’s days of playing professional tennis were over.

Evan knew something had to change; not only to make a return to professional tennis, but achieve any level of success thereafter.

“I decided to go after it again and do it in the correct way,” King said. “If I lost a match, not just taking the next day off. ‘No, get your ass back on the practice court and keep building and keep growing.”

READ MORE: Michigan State’s ace Matthew Forbes stokes "a fire that was missing" in college tennis

This shift in mentality helped King not only return to the tour, but achieve some of the best singles results of his entire career. With his coaching tenure coming to a close, King took on a full season schedule again at the start of 2016. He made four Futures finals, winning two back-to–back that season, before making his long awaited return to a tour-level main draw in 2017 at Los Cabos—losing to Sam Querrey in the Round of 16 in a third-set tiebreak. His next tour-level main draw appearance came only a month later in the US Open, battling through the qualifiers to reach the first round.

Although the Chicago native followed up this season by reaching a career-high 185 in singles, King’s better results remained in doubles.

From 2016-2020, King won a total of 16 doubles titles, including the 2016 Monterey Challenger title alongside Dennis Kudla. He won it again in 2017 with Christopher Eubanks. However, some of King’s favorite memories from this period came when he shared the court with childhood friend Nathan Pasha, with whom he won the 2019 Monterrey Challenger event.

“[The Black community in tennis] is such a small community,” King revealed. “It's not too many of us out there. So you automatically have a little bit of bond on shared experiences…kind of get to know all the black dudes that are your same age range and hang out with them, compete with them, cheer for them.”

Then in 2020, the world hit a stand still due to the COVID pandemic. And with all that time at home came the consideration of whether King’s best tennis is still ahead of him at the age of 29, having still not cracked the Top 100 in singles or doubles.

“I had no reason to believe that, at 29 years old, having been Top 100 singles or doubles, and believe that my best tennis was ahead of me and not behind,” King said. “You have to have just unrealistic expectations and belief in yourself, and I do still and I did then.”

King decided that while his singles results may not get any better from this point, his doubles game will be where his focus remains.

You have to have just unrealistic expectations and belief in yourself, and I do still and I did then.

At the start of the 2021 season, King competed primarily as a doubles player and capped off that season winning consecutive Challenger titles in Zagreb and Biella, before making the third round of the US Open. While it took King until the 2023 season to finally break into the Top 100, he won a total of thirteen Challengers titles in that three-season period, including the Troisdorf Challenger alongside Dustin “Dreddy” Brown.

“Shout out to ‘Dreddy’ man. He stopped playing about a year and a half ago and he still checks up on me constantly,” King said. “Obviously someone that I looked up to, as a competitor and he's just fun to watch. His story is incredible as well and just a really dope human.”​

And in the 2025 season—at the age of 33—it all finally clicked.

King linked up with Christian Harrison, brother of former 2017 Roland Garros doubles champ Ryan Harrison. After initially agreeing to play five events together, the duo won the ATP Dallas 500—King’s first tour-level title in his career—in only their third event since the start of their partnership. The Americans went on to make the finals of the Delray Beach 250. They won another tour-level title at the Acapulco 500, and capped off the first part of the season reaching the semifinals of Indian Wells.

“So then it's like, boom, we are now a partnership. Obviously, we're partners before, but now we're locked in,” King said.

After the clay court season–where they reached the semifinals of the Mutua Madrid Masters, along with another semifinal appearance at Roland Garros, a rift started to grow between the pair, which resulted in 2025 being their first and last season together.

“Everything's easy when you're winning. When we were going through a little bit of a hard streak, we started to butt heads a little bit, had a couple hard conversations about just expectations from each other,” King said. “We had a conversation that was super clean and mutual in the Asia part of the swing of: we're gonna split up and play with new players.”

Even after this decision, the pair continued to achieve success while sharing the court with one another. They won a Brussels 250 event and capped off their season as the most successful American doubles partnership by competing at the ATP Finals in Turin.

No doubt, King had a 2025 season to remember. But not only from the men’s doubles events, but mixed doubles as well.

Evan made history alongside his childhood friend and fellow Chicago native Taylor Townsend, making the Roland Garros finals and being a part of the first time in Grand Slam history where an African American reached at least the quarter finals a single event.

It's not too many of us out there. So you automatically have a little bit of bond on shared experiences.

“I feel like Taylor's an unbelievable role model to Black kids to kids, to mothers to everybody. Like she's unbelievable at being a role model and showing what is possible, and then just like doing it.” King says. “It was special. It was unbelievable in the moment.… It was super, super special in Paris to just share the trophy with Taylor.”

READ MORE: How history was made at Roland Garros 2025

Evan’s 2025 season success is now in the rear-view mirror—and with a new partner in four-time Grand Slam champion and Olympic Gold Medalist Jonathan Peers, he remains optimistic that his best tennis is still ahead of him.

But what King is more appreciative of, away from the results had on the tennis court, is the current state of his “small community” of Black players on tour.

“Ben [Shelton]’s awesome. His dad's awesome. Frances [Tiafoe] being able to take tennis and use his platform to do some sweet stuff off the court. Then those French dudes, I'm looking up to dudes that are younger than me, and being like, ‘Wow, they're really taking this to a new level,” King says.

“I don't know what my role is in it man. I bring advice if advice is needed. I bring vibes if vibes are needed. I just appreciate what I'm seeing…it's really supportive out there for the black athletes and it's been cool to see.”