British tennis star Dan Evans secured perhaps the biggest victory of his life with an epic five-set triumph over 23rd seed Karen Khachanov at the US Open.
Evans, who has had a miserable 2024, fought back from a 0-4 (15-40) deficit in the deciding set to take an improbable 6-7 7-6 7-6 4-6 6-4 victory on Court 6.
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“I just tried to keep fighting. At 4-0 I thought I was out and felt a little sorry for myself,” Evans said.
“I was trying to get myself going and I didn’t want to come out of a Grand Slam tournament with a whimper after the match had gone on for so long and I could see that he was struggling a little bit.
“I just tried to grab one game at a time… Now I just have a bad headache and I need to get rid of it!”
“That was an amazing game and I just want to go to bed!” Evans added.
The victory is a record-breaking one, as the match lasted a grueling five hours and 35 minutes – the longest in the history of the US Open.
The previous record was the fight between Stefan Edberg and Michael Chang in 1992, which lasted five hours and 26 minutes.
“It was incredible. When the score was 4-2 I really started to get going,” Evans added.
“The crowd kind of felt it. I don’t know how many Brits are here, but it seemed like everyone 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 well, great last point and here we are.”
Next up for Evans is a second-round showdown against Argentinian Mariano Navone.
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It was a good day for the British on Tuesday: British top scorer Jack Draper made it safely into the second round with a win over Zhang Zhizhen.
Meanwhile, British women’s number 1 Katie Boulter advanced to the second round with a three-set win over Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
Emma Raducanu, who won the 2021 US Open women’s singles title, will start her campaign late Tuesday with a clash against American Sofia Kenin.
