Epic tennis match sets US Open record

A few hours into a match that eventually set a U.S. Open length record, Dan Evans glanced at the scoreboard. Not to see how he was doing, but to determine exactly how long he had been playing. “In the fourth set, I had to check the set to see what set we were in,” Evans said. “I wasn’t quite sure what set we were in.” More than an hour later, Evans won the longest U.S. Open match since tiebreakers were introduced in 1970, defeating Karen Khachanov 6-7 (6), 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-4 in 5 hours, 35 minutes on Tuesday, the AP reports. The previous record was 5 hours, 26 minutes, when Stefan Edberg defeated Michael Chang in a five-set match in the 1992 semifinals.

Evans trailed 4-0 in the fifth set before winning the final six games. The final point was, fittingly, a marathon 22-shot rally that had Evans on the defensive for most of the time before hitting a hard shot into the corner that the 23rd seed Khachanov couldn’t return over the net with his backhand. “Everything was really hurting,” said Evans, 34, who grabbed his lower legs and rested his hands on his knees in the final set. “I don’t think I’ve ever played that long – five hours in a day – in two sessions, let alone one. I actually thought that on the court. I’ve never practiced two hours, two hours. It’s usually an hour and a half.” He added: “Yeah, I really don’t want to do that again, that’s for sure.”

(More stories about US Open tennis.)