NEW YORK — Daniel Evans has won the longest match at the US 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, 35 minutes.
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.
Evans improved to 5-0 against Khachanov, a semifinalist at the 2022 US 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.
Court 6 rarely draws much of a crowd at the sprawling Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, but droves of fans had assembled by the time the match crossed the five-hour mark, overwhelming the stands despite the sweltering conditions.
According to ESPN BET, Khachanov went as short as -50000 to win when up 4-0 in the fifth set, and Evans was available to bet at +4000 during that time.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
