By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
Rafael Nadal’s epic late-night five-set quarterfinal victory over Dominic Thiem will go down as one of the most exciting, most talked about and longest match in the history of the U.S. Open.
Nadal won the match by the narrowest margin possible – a 7-5 final-set tiebreaker – to win by a 0-6 6-4 7-5 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (7-5). Despite the 6-0 first set, the match lasted four hours, 49 minutes, making it the eighth longest U.S. Open match on record.
The official U.S. Open record book only lists the two longest U.S. Open men’s singles matches of all time. The longest is the 1992 U.S. Open semifinal when Stefan Edberg defeated Michael Chang 6–7, 7–5, 7–6, 5–7, 6–4.
The second-longest listed match is when Sargis Sargsian defeated Nicolas Massu in the 2004 second round in 5:09 by a 6-7, 6-4,3-6, 7-6, 6-4 scoreline. However, a Google search revealed that a 1993 third round match between Richard Krajicek and Todd Martin actually lasted one minute longer, Krajicek winning 6–7, 4–6, 7–6, 6–4, 6–4 in five hours, ten minutes.
In 1992, Ivan Lendl defeated Boris Becker 6-7 (7-4), 6-2, 6-7 (7-4), 6-3, 6-4 in the fourth round that was described in media reports as the longest at the U.S. Open at the time, breaking the previous mark of 4 hours 54 minutes in the 1988 final between Lendl and Mats Wilander, won by Wilander 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 5-7,6-4. In 2010, Kei Nishikori beat Marin Cilic in the first round in 4:59 by a score of 5-7, 7-6, 3-6, 7-6, 6-1. The 2012 U.S. Open final between Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic also lasted 4 hours, 54 minutes, Murray winning 7-6, 7-5, 3-6, 2-6, 6-2. Nadal and Thiem’s epic lands next at 4:49.
To boot, Nadal and Thiem’s epic ended at 2:04 am, the seventh U.S. Open match in history to finish after 2 am, 22 minutes shy of the all-time record.
