Dan Evans outlasted Karen Khachanov in the longest U.S. Open match in modern history — 6-7 (8), 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-4 in 5 hours, 35 minutes on Tuesday.
The Evans-Khachanov first-round match broke the record for longest U.S. Open match since 1970 and the implementation of the tiebreaker.
“It’s just a crazy, crazy match,” Evans said. “I guess it’s one I’ll remember obviously forever.
“It’s the longest I’ve ever been on a court. In the fourth set I had to check the set to see what set we was in. I wasn’t entirely sure what set we was in. But, yeah, I don’t really want to do that again. That’s for sure.”
U.S. OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Order of Play
The previous longest U.S. Open match since 1970 was a 1992 semifinal: Stefan Edberg beat Michael Chang in 5 hours, 26 minutes. In 2022, Carlos Alcaraz beat Jannik Sinner in a quarterfinal that took 5 hours, 15 minutes.
Edberg and Alcaraz each won the title in their respective years.
Evans, a 34-year-old Brit, is ranked 184th in the world. Earlier this summer, he played Olympic doubles with Andy Murray in the final tournament of Murray’s career.
Evans, who reached a career-high ranking of 21 last August, earned his first tour-level match win since March. He dipped down to lower-level Challenger events in the spring.
He gets 36th-ranked Argentine Mariano Navone in the second round on Thursday.
“Obviously I won’t practice tomorrow,” Evans said. “Just try and recover as best as possible. I was hurting all over really. I don’t think I’ve played five hours, that long, in a day ever in two sessions, never mind in one.”
Khachanov, a 28-year-old Russian, is ranked 22nd. He made the U.S. Open semifinals in 2022 and the Australian Open semifinals in 2023.
The longest tennis match in the modern era at any top-level tournament was John Isner’s win over Nicolas Mahut at 2010 Wimbledon: 11 hours, 5 minutes, spread over three days and ending 70-68 in the fifth set.