Noticeable was the lack of sponsors on the shirt of Evans, who was dropped from Nike's sponsorship roster.
The Birmingham-based pro was forced to play the match in a NZ$22 t-shirt from clothes company Uniqlo, which he purchased 18 of last weekend to see him through the tournament.
Conversely, Cilic signed an endorsement agreement with FILA at the end of last year, likely worth millions.
Evans's contrastingly neat all-court game prevailed and his nerve held fast at the end as Cilic made his 69th unforced error.
But Evans started in lacklustre fashion, leaving the ball short and not helped by having an insect in his eye. There was little sign of the epic struggle to come on show court No 3 as day turned to night.
Evans has an underrated tennis IQ that sees him think on his feet and he began to find a way to disrupt the tall Croatian, staying in the rallies with his elegant backhand slice and drawing errors from his opponent.
Cilic has a an extremely functional game with no evident weaknesses, but he continually overhit against the more conservative and less powerful underdog and had clocked up 51 unforced errors by the end of the third set.
The fourth set was tight as breaks were swapped, but Evans leapt in front decisively for 4-2 and then broke him again by taking a third match point.
