Britain's Daniel Evans and Russia's Karen Khachanov entered record books on August 27 as they played the longest match in US Open history. The match that went into tie-breaker thrice ended after five hours and 35 minutes with Evans winning 6-7 (6/8), 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/4), 4-6, 6-4.
The record for longest US Open match previously belonged to Stefan Edberg and Michael Chang. The US Open 1992 semifinal clash was five fours and 26 minutes long. Edberg edged past Chang as he reached final winning 6-7 (3/7), 7-5, 7-6 (7/3), 5-7, 6-4.
Evans made a thrilling comeback in the last set as he was trailing 0-4. But Evans served his way to fight back into the game.
"It was a long, long battle," Evans said. "I thought I played pretty well for the majority of the match. Obviously I was struggling physically, but so was he. "It was sort of who could last the longest in the end."
Crowd rallies behind Evans
Evans got the support from the crowd as he won the last set 6-4 at the Arthur Ashe Stadium. He won six games in a row to script history despite struggling with his legs.
"(I) just tried to scrape little by little," Evans said. "Each point I was obviously really struggling with my legs. On serve I was fine on return, so that gave me a bit of hope.
"When you're a kid, you're just told to fight until the end. I mean, that's sort of rule one. I've done that pretty consistently for my career. It sort of paid off a bit today."
Evans reveals not practicing for more than 90 minutes
Each and every set of the game went over an hour. The third set was the longest as it was an hour and 12 minutes.
Naturally, Evans was exhausted after the record-breaking battle with 23rd seeded Russian. He revealed that he has never even practiced for two hours, let alone five hours.
"I don't think I've played five hours in a day ever in two sessions, never mind in one," said the 34-year-old with a laugh. "I was actually thinking that on the court. I've never practiced two hours. It's normally an hour and a half.”
He will now go up against Argentina's Mariano Navone in the second round on August 29.
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