British tennis star Dan Evans secured perhaps the best win of his life with an epic five-set conquer twenty third seed Karen Khachanov on the US Open.
Evans, who’s endured a miserable 2024, fought back from 4-0 (15-40) down within the deciding set to assert an improbable 6-7 7-6 7-6 4-6 6-4 win on Court 6.
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“I just tried to maintain fighting. At 4-0 I assumed I used to be out, felt somewhat sorry for myself,” Evans said.
“I used to be attempting to get myself going, and I didn’t need to exit of a Slam with a whimper after how long the match went on and I could see he was struggling a bit.
“I just tried to grab a game at a time… I’ve just got a foul headache now and gotta eliminate that!”
“It was a hell of a match and I just need to go to bed!” Evans added.
The win is a record-breaking one with the match lasting an exhausting five hours and 35 minutes – the longest in US Open history.
The previous record was Stefan Edberg’s clash with Michael Chang in 1992, which lasted five hours and 26 minutes.
“It was amazing. At 4-2 I actually began to get going,” Evans added.
“The group form of sensed it, I do not understand how many British persons are here however it gave the look of the entire place wanted me to win – I do not think that is ever happened before.
“It really helped because he felt them after which I actually played pretty good, great last point and here we’re.”
Next up for Evans is a second-round showdown with Argentine Mariano Navone.
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It has been day for the Britons on Tuesday with British no.1 Jack Draper making it safely through to the second round with a win over Zhang Zhizhen.
Meanwhile, women’s British no.1 Katie Boulter advanced to the second round with a triumph in three sets over Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
Emma Raducanu, who won the US Open women’s singles title in 2021, gets her campaign underway late on Tuesday with a clash against American Sofia Kenin.
