NEW YORK (AP) — A few hours into a match that eventually set a U.S. Open record for length, Dan Evans glanced over at the scoreboard.
Not to see how he was doing, but to clarify 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 entirely sure what set we were in.”
More than an hour later, Evans won the longest match at the U.S. Open since tiebreakers were introduced in 1970, beating Karen Khachanov 6-7 (6), 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-4 on Tuesday in 5 hours, 35 minutes.
Evans trailed 4-0 in the fifth set before running off the final six games. The final point, fittingly, was a marathon 22-shot rally, with Evans on the defensive for much of the point before hitting a hard shot to the corner that the No. 23-seeded Khachanov couldn't get back over the net with his backhand.
The previous record was 5 hours, 26 minutes, when Stefan Edberg beat Michael Chang in a five-setter in the 1992 semifinals.
“I was hurting all over, really,” said the 34-year-old Evans, who was grabbing at his lower legs and resting his hands on his knees in the final set.
“I don’t think I’ve played five hours, that long, in a day, ever — in two sessions, never mind in one. I was actually thinking that on the court. I’ve never practiced two hours, two hours. It’s normally an hour and a half.”
Evans improved to 5-0 against Khachanov, a semifinalist at the 2022 U.S. Open, by emerging in a match in which the sets lasted 68, 67, 72, 67 and 61 minutes.
The British player who played doubles with Andy Murray at the Olympics in the three-time Grand Slam champion's final tournament finished with a 201-191 edge in total points. He advanced to play Mariano Navone of Argentina in the second round.
Evans has battled injuries in a difficult 2024. He arrived at Flushing Meadows just 4-17 this season, and said the fight he showed Tuesday should help restore some confidence that he had lost.
He just wished it would have come more quickly.
“Yeah, I don’t really want to do that again,” he said, “that’s for sure.”
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Spectators watch play between Taro Daniel, of Japan, and Tristan Schoolkate, of Australia, during the first round of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Jakub Mensik, of the Czech Republic, returns a shot to Felix Auger-Aliassime, of Canada, during the first round of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Miami Beach residents and visitors can feel it coming in the air tonight — and the rest of the weekend — as “Miami Vice” cast and crew gather to celebrate the iconic television series' 40th anniversary.
The show premiered on NBC on Sept. 16, 1984, and ran for five seasons. The “cocaine cowboy”-era crime drama, featuring Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as undercover cops, was revolutionary in its use of pop culture, style and music and spawned a film reboot in 2006. And by filming the show primarily in South Florida, the series helped transform the image of Miami and Miami Beach in a way that would reverberate for decades.
Former cast members, including Edward James Olmos and Michael Madsen, met with fans Friday at the Royal Palm South Beach and were set to return Saturday. Also attending were Saundra Santiago, Olivia Brown, Bruce McGill, Joaquim De Almeida, Bill Smitrovich, Pepe Serna and Ismael East Carlo.
“It was not ‘Hill Street Blues.’ It was not ‘Police Story,’ ” Olmos said on Friday. “It was way different in artistic endeavor on all levels. The creativity, as far as music, writing, production value. The production value was so overwhelming. We spared nothing. I mean, these people were serious, and they spent a lot of time and money for each episode, and it shows.”
Olmos said that the show had a profound effect on introducing Miami to the world and creating an idealized version of South Beach that would later become a reality.
“When we were here, when we started the show in 1984, there was no South Beach,” Olmos said. “There was a South Beach, but it was dilapidated. The buildings were all literally falling into disrepair.”
Years before serious restoration efforts would transform South Beach into a center of fashion, music and tourism, Olmos said productions crews were painting the exteriors of the neighborhood's historic Art Deco buildings themselves to make them look good on camera.
“We would paint the facades and put out tables, and we did what now became the reality of South Beach,” Olmos said.
While most television production was still being done in Los Angeles or New York in the 1980s, Olmos doubts the show would have been as successful if they had tried to fake South Florida in California.
“They could have never shot this anywhere else in the world,” Olmos said. “Look at the show from the very first episode, and as it went on, the beauty of Miami is unprecedented.”
Premiering just a few years after the launch of MTV, “Miami Vice” embraced contemporary style and music. Besides Jan Hammer's original scoring, the producers regularly included songs from popular artists like Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Dire Straits and Foreigner.
Fred Lyle, an associate producer and music coordinator for “Miami Vice,” said the importance of music was evident from the first episode, as “In the Air Tonight” by Phil Collins plays while Johnson and Thomas cruise the streets of Miami in their Ferrari convertible.
“And that’s when ‘Miami Vice’ became different musically than anything else,” Lyle said. “Music was going over this scene, that scene. One song was helping to stitch the fabric of the narrative together.”
Aside from the show's style, the stories and characters also had substance. Veteran television actor Bruce McGill has played countless cops, coaches and other authority figures over several decades, but he said his guest role as a burnt-out former detective in the second season of “Miami Vice” stands out compared to the straight-laced characters that comprise most of his career.
“It was a very good part that they allowed me to make better, to enhance, to ham it up a little,” McGill said. “And it was very satisfying.”
"Miami Vice" fan Matt Lechliter, 39, traveled all the way to Miami Beach from Oxnard, California, to celebrate the show's anniversary.
“I wasn't alive when it premiered, but it's a part of me,” Lechliter said.
Lechliter said he remembers watching the later seasons and reruns with his parents as a child but really became a fan when he rediscovered the show about five years ago.
“I binge-watched it," Lechliter said. “I was like, ‘Wow, this really is amazing.’ When I heard about this event, I said, ‘I’ve gotta go.' ”
The anniversary celebration will continue through the weekend with career discussions, as well as bus and walking tours of filming locations.
The Miami Vice Museum is open to the public from Friday to Sunday, featuring a wide range of items never before displayed together since the show’s conclusion in 1989. The exhibit is being hosted at the Wilzig Erotic Art Museum.
And to kick off the celebration on Thursday, Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner met with cast and crew at the Avalon Hotel in South Beach to present a proclamation declaring Sept. 16, 2024, as “Miami Vice Day.”
Fans gathered at the Royal Palm South Beach in Miami Beach, Fla., on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the television series "Miami Vice." Actor Bruce McGill, who guest-starred as retired detective Hank Weldon in the show's second season, signs a model Ferrari for a fan. (AP Photo/David Fischer)
Fans gathered at the Royal Palm South Beach in Miami Beach, Fla., on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the television series "Miami Vice." Actress Olivia Brown, right, who played Detective Trudy Joplin, speaks with a fan. (AP Photo/David Fischer)
Fans gathered at the Royal Palm South Beach in Miami Beach, Fla., on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the television series "Miami Vice." (AP Photo/David Fischer)
Fans gathered at the Royal Palm South Beach in Miami Beach, Fla., on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the television series "Miami Vice." Actor Edward James Olmos, who played Lt. Martin Castillo, takes a photo with a fan. (AP Photo/David Fischer)
