Dan Evans pulled off some incredible feats of escapology alongside Andy Murray at the Olympics but this was his best trick yet – and a comeback of which the great Scot himself would have been proud.
In the longest match in US Open history, Evans trailed Karen Khachanov 4-0 in the deciding set but reeled off six games on the trot. It was a spectacular way to record the third British win on a superb day at the US Open for the trans-Atlantic raiders.
First Katie Boulter came from behind to win, then Jack Draper eased through in a little over an hour. And then Evans slugged it out for five hours and 33 minutes against hulking Russian Khachanov, winning 6-7, 7-6, 7-6, 4-6, 6-4.
Evans was visibly flagging at 4-0 down in the final set but inexplicably he chipped and volleyed and eked his way back into it. They passed the record of five hours and 26 minutes set by Stefan Edberg and Michael Chang in the 1992 semi-finals as Evans won his fifth game in a row.
The 34-year-old Evans had not won a tour match since March and has even talked of potential retirement but what a performance this was. He relishes chopping a bigger man down to size and he has won all five of his meetings with Khachanov.
Dan Evans progressed to the second round of the US Open with victory over Karen Khachanov
The five-and-a-half hour epic set record for the longest match in the history of the competition
Earlier, Boulter had to win ugly on a beautiful day in New York but afterwards declared herself ready to ‘start making moves in bigger tournaments’. When the 28-year-old dropped the opening set against qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich it looked as though the disruption to her build-up caused by playing the Olympics might cost her.
‘My optimum schedule would have been playing Washington, Toronto and then you can start building,’ said Boulter. ‘(Instead) I changed surface within three days – it was a complete risk for me and my body. I wanted to do it because I feel like I’m a lot stronger now than I ever was and the Olympics was an amazing week for me. But this was a really important win.’
Boulter, who plays Spaniard Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in the second round tomorrow, admitted the switch from Parisian clay to North American hard court had her worried about form coming into this tournament.
‘There’s always going to be that question mark in your mind: am I ready? Am I going to bring my best game?
‘This match, it was about accepting it might not be pretty but I’m going to have to find a way through.
‘It’s important I start making moves in bigger tournaments. If I want to go from 30 to 20 (in the rankings), there’s a huge jump, and if I want to go from 20 to 10, there’s a massive jump. I’m going to have to play better but I’ve got that game to do that.’
Boulter is yet to go beyond the third round at a Grand Slam and Draper’s best run is the fourth round here last year. So, with all the talk of filling the void left by Andy Murray, it feels about time one of them pushed on at a major.
Katie Boulter was forced to come back from behind in her win against Aliaksandra Sasnovich
Draper’s bid to do just that got off to the smoothest of starts as his opponent Zhizhen Zhang hobbled his way through the second half of the match and retired trailing 6-3, 6-0, 4-0.
The 27-year-old from Shanghai blamed a fall in training and suggested he was looking to husband his strength for the Asian swing next month.
On paper this looked a cracking matchup but no complaints from Draper over getting home and hosed in little over an hour.
‘My last three Grand Slams, my first round matches have been five sets. So it’s anice feeling to have one that was a little bit easier and can hopefully settle me in.
‘It’s the best I’ve hit the ball (for a while). It was a tough period after the grass, going on to the clay and then coming straight out to America. But the last couple of days I’ve been starting to feel the ball great.’
One player who did not have to worry about that grass-clay-hard transition was Emma Raducanu, who skipped the Olympics and was beginning her campaign last night against fellow Grand Slam champion Sofia Kenin.
Today Harriet Dart plays No19 seed Marta Kostyuk after winning late on Monday night with the help of a recent addition to her coaching box: her mother Susie.
Jack Draper comfortably dispatched Zhang Zhizhen to book his place in the second round
Dart’s main coach Olga Morozova does not like to travel from her Wimbledon base so mum has been drafted in since Cincinnati.
‘I was just joking with her and said we’ve got a quite good record, maybe you want to come a bit more,’ said Dart.
‘She would never leave our family dog. The dog is number one, definitely, out of all of us – she’s missing him dearly.’
