Dan Evans performed some incredible feats of escape art alongside Andy Murray at the Olympics, but this was his best trick yet – and a comeback the great Scot would have been proud of.
In the longest match in US Open history, Evans was down 4-0 to Karen Khachanov in the deciding set but won six games in a row. It was a spectacular way to secure Britain’s third win on a magnificent day for the transatlantic raiders at the US Open.
First Katie Boulter came from behind to win, then Jack Draper cruised through in just over an hour and finally Evans battled for five hours and 33 minutes against the burly Russian Khachanov, beating him 6-7, 7-6, 7-6, 4-6, 6-4.
Evans was visibly dejected as he trailed 4-0 in the final set, but inexplicably, with a chip and a volley, he managed to regain the lead. They surpassed the record of five hours and 26 minutes set by Stefan Edberg and Michael Chang in the 1992 semi-finals, when Evans won his fifth game in a row.
Evans, 34, had not won a tour match since March and had even talked about a possible retirement, but it was a spectacular performance. He is enjoying beating a bigger opponent and has won all five of his meetings with Khachanov.
Dan Evans advances to the second round of the US Open with victory over Karen Khachanov
The 34-year-old was on the brink of defeat before fighting his way into the second round.
The five-and-a-half-hour epic set the record for the longest match in the history of the competition.
Boulter had to win in an ugly way on a beautiful day in New York before declaring herself ready to “start making moves at bigger tournaments”. When the 28-year-old lost the first set to Saudi Aliaksandra Sasnovich, it looked like the disruption to her preparation caused by playing in the Olympics could cost her dearly.
“My optimal schedule would have been to play Washington, Toronto and then start preparing,” Boulter said. “Instead, I changed surfaces in three days – it was a total risk for me and my body. I wanted to do it because I feel I’m much stronger now than I’ve ever been and the Olympics were an incredible week for me. But this was a really important win.”
Boulter, who will play Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in the second round tomorrow, admitted that the change from Parisian clay to American hard courts had her worried about her form ahead of this tournament.
“There will always be a doubt in your mind: Am I ready? Am I going to give my best?
‘This match was about accepting that it might not be nice, but I’m going to have to find a way to get through it.
“It’s important that I start making changes at bigger tournaments. If I want to go from 30th to 20th (in the rankings), it’s a big jump, and if I want to go from 20th to 10th, it’s a huge jump. I’m going to have to play better, but I have the game to do it.”
Boulter is yet to get past the third round at a Grand Slam and Draper’s best performance was the fourth round here last year. So with all the talk of filling the void left by Andy Murray, it seems about time one of them moved on at a major tournament.
Katie Boulter forced to come from behind in her win over Aliaksandra Sasnovich
Draper’s attempt to do so got off to a smooth start as her opponent Zhizhen Zhang struggled through the second half of the match and retired trailing 6-3, 6-0, 4-0.
The 27-year-old from Shanghai attributed the problem to a training slump and suggested he was looking to maintain his strength for next month’s Asian swing.
On paper, this looked like a spectacular matchup, but Draper had no complaints about getting home and getting a shower in just over an hour.
‘In my last three Grand Slams, my first-round matches went to five sets. So it’s a nice feeling to have one that was a bit easier and hopefully I can settle in.
“It’s the best shot I’ve hit in a long time. It was a difficult period after grass, after moving to clay and after travelling directly to the United States. But in the last few days I’ve started to feel the ball very well.”
One player who didn’t have to worry about that transition from grass to clay to hard court was Emma Raducanu, who skipped the Olympics and began her campaign last night against fellow Grand Slam champion Sofia Kenin.
Today Harriet Dart plays 19th seed Marta Kostyuk after winning on Monday night with the help of a recent addition to her coaching team: her mother Susie.
Jack Draper comfortably dispatched Zhang Zhizhen to book his place in the second round.
Dart’s head coach, Olga Morozova, does not like to travel from her Wimbledon base, so her mother has been recruited from Cincinnati.
“I was just joking with her and told her we had a pretty good record, she might want to come out a little more,” Dart said.
“She would never abandon the family dog. The dog is definitely number one among all of us. She misses him so much.”
