US Open
Evans beats Khachanov in longest match in U.S. Open history
The match lasted 5 hours and 35 minutes.
August 27, 2024
Jamie Squire/Getty Images
Daniel Evans beat Karen Khachanov in five sets on Tuesday to reach the second round of the U.S. Open. ATP Staff
Daniel Evans defeated Karen Khachanov in the longest match in U.S. Open history on Tuesday in New York. The Briton rallied back from 0-4 down in the deciding set to beat the 23rd seed 6-7 (6), 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-4 in five hours and 35 minutes.
The previous record was set in 1992 by Stefan Edberg and Michael Chang in the semifinals, which took five hours and 26 minutes, when Edberg won 6-7 (3), 7-5, 7-6 (3), 5-7, 6-4.
“It was a long game. A long, long battle. I thought I played pretty well for a lot of the game. Obviously I was struggling physically and he was struggling too,” Evans said. “It just came down to who could hang in there the longest.”
For a moment, it looked like this match would never go down in history: Khachanov led 4-0 in the fifth set and had four break points on Evans’ serve but couldn’t convert them.
“I just kept going at it. Yeah, I just tried to chip away at it. My leg was hurting a lot with each point, obviously. On my serve, I was doing OK on return, so that gave me a little bit of hope,” Evans said. “When you’re a kid, they tell you to just keep fighting until the end. I mean, that’s one of the rules. I’ve been doing that my whole career and it kind of paid off today.”
The Court 6 crowd was roaring from start to finish, urging Evans to get back into the match and then roaring in celebration when Evans ended the match with a final forehand and Khachanov missed at the net. There was barely room to stand in the throng surrounding the court as the historic match finished.
All five sets lasted over an hour, with the third set being the longest at 72 minutes.
Khachanov hit 79 winners to Evans’ 53, but it wasn’t enough: the winner converted 8 of 18 break points while Khachanov converted 8 of 23. Evans won a total of 201 points to Khachanov’s 191, and the pair now lead the Lexus ATP Head-to-Head series 5-0.
Evans was 4-17 at tour level this season and had not beaten an opponent ranked in the top 100 in the PIF ATP Rankings since beating Lorenzo Sonego, then ranked 53rd in the world, in Miami in March.
“I’m very proud to have won the match. That’s the biggest feeling,” Evans said. “I’ve had a lot of first-round matches this year. It’s nice to win the match. Of course it was a long match. But the biggest feeling is that I can still win at this level. When you’re not winning, you always have doubts. That’s normal in anything in life. When you’re not doing well, you have doubts. It’s the same in tennis.”
Notably, the 34-year-old partnered Andy Murray in the men’s doubles at the Paris Olympics, in what would become Murray’s final tournament of his career, and the pair reached the third round before losing to Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul.
The longest match in US Open history
Match Year/Round Score Time Daniel Evans beat Karen Khachanov 2024 R1 6-7(6), 7-6(2), 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-4 5:35 Stefan Edberg beat Michael Chang 1992 SF 6-7(3), 7-5, 7-6(3), 5-7, 6-4 5:26 Carlos Alcaraz beat Jannik Sinner 2022 QF 6-3, 6-7(7), 6-7(0), 7-5, 6-3 5:15 Sargis Sargisyan beat Nikolas Mas 2004 R2 6-7(6), 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-4 5:09
