Dan Evans says what the US crowd did during his match which has never happened to him before

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Britain’s Dan Evans won the longest match in US Open history after defeating Russia’s Karen Khachanov in over five hours.

Dan Evans certainly took the scenic route in his US Open first round match. At 4-0 down in the decider, it looked all but over for the Brit.

However, after a summer of Olympic comebacks and match point survivals, Evans somehow found the resolve to win 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 6-4.

A dramatic end saw 23rd seed Khachanov save two match points before he fired a shot into the net and an elated Evans secured his pass to the next round.

With both players receiving standing ovations from an utterly entertained crowd on a packed outside court in New York, their five hour and 35 minute battle sets a new US Open record.

Evans, who sacrificed 500 ranking points and subsequently dropped to well outside the top 100 after partnering Andy Murray at the Olympics, feels so worthy a player to have this marathon encounter fall his way.

Dan Evans thanks the US Open crowd after astonishing level of support

You certainly got your money’s worth if you rocked up to Court Six. Engrossed throughout, the crowd helped will Evans over the finish line.

Speaking on court, albeit exhausted, Evans thanked the crowd for their outstanding and in his words slightly surprising support.

“It was amazing,” he said. “At 4-2 I think it started to really get going. They sort of sensed it and I don’t know how many British people are here, but it seemed like the whole place wanted me to win, I don’t think that has ever happened before!

“It really helped because he felt them and then I actually played pretty good, great last point and here we are!”

Evans admitted after the match that, rather understandably, he had a headache and simply just wanted to go to bed.

However he can’t hang around for too long, with a match against Argentina’s in-form Mariano Navone set for Thursday morning.

How did the other British players fare in their US Open first round matches?

Evans went about his business in slightly more complicated style to his British counterparts.

Harriet Dart and Katie Boulter both sailed through, with the former dropping just three games against France’s Chloe Paquet.

Both face challenging next round matches however, with Dart facing 19th seed Marta Kostyuk and Boulter preparing to play Jessica Bouzas-Maneiro, who dumped out the 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in SW19 last month.

Jack Draper breezed through his opening match, with Chinese opponent Zhang Zhizhen retiring through injury.

While four brits are already through, Emma Raducanu couldn’t get past Sofia Kenin, with the former US Open champion still having not won in New York since her victorious run in 2021.