NEW YORK – Daniel Evans has won the longest match at the US Open since the introduction of the tiebreak in 1970: He defeated Karen Khachanov on Tuesday 6:7 (6), 7:6 (2), 7:6 (4), 4:6, 6:4 in 5 hours and 35 minutes.
Evans trailed 4-0 in the fifth set before winning the final six games. The final point was, fittingly, a marathon 22-shot rally that found Evans on the defensive for most of the time before hitting a hard shot into the corner that the 23rd seed Khachanov couldn’t get back over the net with his backhand.
The previous record was 5 hours and 26 minutes, when Stefan Edberg defeated Michael Chang in a five-set match in the 1992 semifinals.
Evans improved his record against Khachanov, a 2022 US Open semifinalist, to 5-0 by prevailing in a match that saw sets last 68, 67, 72, 67 and 61 minutes.
The British player, who played in the final doubles match of the three-time Grand Slam winner with Andy Murray at the Olympic Games, finished with a lead of 201 to 191. He reached the second round and played against Argentinian Mariano Navone.
Court 6 of the sprawling Billie Jean King National Tennis Center rarely draws large crowds, but by the time play had passed the five-hour mark, hordes of fans had gathered there, crowding the stands despite the sweltering heat.
According to ESPN BET, with the score at 4-0 in the fifth set, Khachanov only needed a bet of -50,000 to win, and Evans could bet +4,000 at that point.
Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
