A few hours into a match that eventually set a U.S. Open record for length, Dan Evans glanced over at the scoreboard.
Not to see how he was doing, but to clarify exactly how long he had been playing.
“In the fourth set, I had to check the set to see what set we were in,” Evans said. “I wasn’t entirely sure what set we were in.”
More than an hour later, Evans won the longest match at the U.S. Open since tiebreakers were introduced in 1970, beating Karen Khachanov 6-7 (6), 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-4 on Tuesday in 5 hours and 35 minutes.
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Evans trailed 4-0 in the fifth set before running off the final six games. The final point, fittingly, was a marathon 22-shot rally, with Evans on the defensive for much of the point before hitting a hard shot to the corner that the No. 23-seeded Khachanov couldn't get back over the net with his backhand.
The previous record was 5 hours, 26 minutes, when Stefan Edberg beat Michael Chang in a five-setter in the 1992 semifinals.
“I was hurting all over, really,” said the 34-year-old Evans, who was grabbing at his lower legs and resting his hands on his knees in the final set.
“I don’t think I’ve played five hours, that long, in a day, ever — in two sessions, never mind in one. I was actually thinking that on the court. I’ve never practiced two hours, two hours. It’s normally an hour and a half.”
Evans improved to 5-0 against Khachanov, a semifinalist at the 2022 U.S. Open, by emerging in a match in which the sets lasted 68, 67, 72, 67 and 61 minutes.
The British player who played doubles with Andy Murray at the Olympics in the three-time Grand Slam champion's final tournament finished with a 201-191 edge in total points. He advanced to play Mariano Navone of Argentina in the second round.
Evans has battled injuries in a difficult 2024. He arrived at Flushing Meadows just 4-17 this season, and said the fight he showed Tuesday should help restore some confidence that he had lost.
He just wished it would have come more quickly.
“Yeah, I don’t really want to do that again,” he said, “that’s for sure.”
