British tennis star Dan Evans scored perhaps the biggest win of his life with a historic five-set victory over 23rd seed Karen Khachanov at the US Open.
Evans, who has endured a miserable 2024, came back from 4-0 (15-40) down in the deciding set to seal an improbable 6-7 7-6 7-6 4-6 6-4 win on Court 6.
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“I just tried to keep fighting. At 4-0 I felt I lost, I felt a bit sorry for myself,” Evans said.
“I was trying to prepare myself, and I didn’t want to go out of a Slam losing, because the match went on for quite a while and I could see he was struggling a bit.
“I just tried to catch one game at a time… I’ve got a massive headache right now and I need to get rid of it!”
Evans said, “It was a very exciting match and I just want to go to bed!”
The win was a record-breaking one, as the match lasted five hours and 35 minutes – the longest match in US Open history.
Earlier this record was held by the match between Stefan Edberg and Michael Chang in 1992 which lasted for five hours and 26 minutes.
“It was amazing. At 4-2 I really started to get going,” Evans said.
“The crowd felt it, I don’t know how many British people are here but it felt like the whole stadium wanted me to win – I don’t think that’s ever happened before.
“That really helped because they felt them and then I played really well, the last point went really well and now we’re here.”
Evans will next face Argentina’s Mariano Navon in the second round.
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Tuesday was a good day for Britain as UK number one Jack Draper safely advanced to the second round with a win over Zhang Zhizhen.
Meanwhile, British women’s number one Katie Boulter entered the second round after defeating Aliaksandra Sasnovich in three sets.
Emma Raducanu, who won the US Open women’s singles title in 2021, will begin her campaign with a match against American Sofia Kenin late on Tuesday.