Brit Dan Evans secures epic five-set win in record-breaking US Open match
British tennis star Dan Evans secured perhaps the greatest win of his life with an epic five-set triumph over 23rd seed Karen Khachanov at the US Open.
Evans, who’s endured a miserable 2024, fought back from 4-0 (15-40) down in the deciding set to claim an improbable 6-7 7-6 7-6 4-6 6-4 win on Court 6.
“I just tried to keep fighting. At 4-0 I thought I was out, felt a little sorry for myself,” Evans said.
“I was trying to get myself going, and I didn’t want to go out of a Slam with a whimper after how long the match went on and I could see he was struggling a bit.
“I just tried to grab a game at a time… I’ve just got a bad headache now and gotta get rid of that!”
“It was a hell of a match and I just want to go to bed!” Evans added.
The win is a record-breaking one with the match lasting an exhausting five hours and 35 minutes – the longest in US Open history.
The previous record was Stefan Edberg’s clash with Michael Chang in 1992, which lasted five hours and 26 minutes.
“It was amazing. At 4-2 I really started to get going,” Evans added.
“The crowd sort of sensed it, I don’t know how many British people are here but it seemed like the whole place wanted me to win – I don’t think that’s ever happened before.
“It really helped because he felt them and then I actually played pretty good, great last point and here we are.”
Next up for Evans is a second-round showdown with Argentine Mariano Navone.
It’s been a good day for the Britons on Tuesday with British no.1 Jack Draper making it safely through to the second round with a win over Zhang Zhizhen.
Meanwhile, women’s British no.1 Katie Boulter advanced to the second round with a triumph in three sets over Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
Emma Raducanu, who won the US Open women’s singles title in 2021, gets her campaign underway late on Tuesday with a clash against American Sofia Kenin.