Dan Evans wins the longest match in US Open history | Tennis | Sport

Dan Evans won the longest match in US Open history after an incredible comeback in the fifth and final set.

“It was an amazing game,” he said. “Now I just want to go to bed.”

The British number 5 suffered from cramps when he lost 4-0 in the deciding match against number 23 seed Karen Khachenov. But the Davis Cup star then won the last six games to triumph 6-7, 7-6, 7-6, 4-6, 6-4 in five hours and 35 minutes.

In the hot and humid conditions on Court 5, it was a battle of the strongest before the Russian netted a backhand on his third match point. The previous record was five hours and 26 minutes in the 1992 semi-final between Stefan Edberg and Michael Chang.

The courageous victory ended a terrible slump in form. He had lost his last 10 tour matches since Miami in March – and had dropped to 184th in the world rankings after playing with Andy Murray at the Olympics rather than defending his title in Washington.

Evans, who pulled out of the Queen’s Club with a knee injury, told Sky Sports: “I haven’t played a lot of tennis this year. I just tried to keep fighting. I thought I was out. I felt a bit sorry for myself. And then I tried to get back into the swing of things and I didn’t want to go out of a Grand Slam tournament again without a lot of fighting spirit and with a whimper.”

“I don’t even know how long the match lasted. I could see he was struggling a little bit and I just tried to win one game at a time. My serve was obviously really, really, really bad. I just have a bad headache now and I just need to get rid of this physically.”

Evans, who had spoken before the final Grand Slam of the year about looking forward to next season, added: “I knew I hadn’t put in enough work because I was a little bit injured. And of course I came out late here too. I think maybe I was a little bit lucky in the end because he was injured and of course I feel a little bit better when I’m up there. And in the end I almost messed it up. But no, I’m really happy. It was an amazing match. And now I just want to go to bed.”

Evans failed to convert three set points at 5-4 in the first set – and two more in the tiebreak – to lose four points in a row. He also received a warning for racket misuse after losing his serve in the opening game of the fifth set.

But the Russian then took a medical time out to treat his left thigh and was barely able to move in the last few matches. And Evans is now on a remarkable 5-0 win over the world number 22.