The five biggest comebacks of 2024 in Grand Slams | ATP Tour

The Best of 2024

The five biggest comebacks of 2024 in Grand Slams

Daniel Evans starred in the most epic of the season

December 05, 2024

To mark the end of another exciting season, ATPTour.com presents its annual series highlighting the best in rivalries, matches, comebacks, upsets and more. Today we relive the five best Grand Slam comebacks of this season.

5) R2 Abierto de Australia, Daniil Medvedev v. a Emil Ruusuvuori 3-6, 6-7(1), 6-4, 7-6(1), 6-0
With dawn approaching in Melbourne, Daniil Medvedev avoided a premature upset by recovering from a two-sets-to-none deficit, a position from which he would win again in the semi-finals against Alexander Zverev. It could have been easy for Medvedev to become deflated after losing an 83-minute second set against Ruusuvuori, but the 20-time tour champion did exactly the opposite and fought his way to finally win at 3:40 a.m.

“This match will surely stay in my memory,” Medvedev said after the four-hour, 23-minute victory.

The 28-year-old showed some early signs of rust with the backhand in what was his first tournament of the season. “I was failing everywhere,” he later assessed. But Medvedev matched the Finn’s clean hitting and raised his level in important moments, such as when he was two points away from defeat at 4-5 in the fourth set.

He then won the fourth set tie-break and asserted his dominance in the decider while Ruusuvuori began to have physical problems.

What may surprise some fans is that Medvedev chose to use the same racket starting in the third set instead of using a new one like many players do.

“I finally found one that I felt I was playing better with. “Sometimes it’s something you create in your mind,” Medvedev said. “I kept this racket. “I started with her at the beginning of the third set and stayed with her until the end of the match.”

4) R2 US Open, Jiri Lehecka v. and Mitchell Krueger 6-7(5), 0-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5
Jiri Lehecka was competing in his second tournament since suffering a back injury in Madrid in April, and it seemed the lack of matches was taking its toll on the 22-year-old against American Krueger.

The Czech lost 11 consecutive games from 6-5 in the first set and in an instant, he was three games away from leaving the last major of the season.

But the 32nd seed increased his aggression and hitting power, hitting 67 winners in the entire match, to obtain his first victory from a deficit of two sets to none and after competing for almost four hours on a hot afternoon from New York. Lehecka left his record at 4-1 in five sets and reached four consecutive wins in those circumstances.

Jiri Lehecka survives Mitchell Krueger.” style=”width:100%;” src=”https://www.atptour.com/-/media/images/news/2024/11/27/17/19/lehecka-us-open-2024-krueger.jpg”>
^{Jiri Lehecka competing at Flushing Meadows. Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images}

3) R1 Wimbledon, Thanasi Kokkinakis v. R1 Wimbledon. a Felix Auger-Aliassime 4-6, 5-7, 7-6(9), 6-4, 6-4
When it comes to five-set epics, Thanasi Kokkinakis is an expert. This season, the Australian played five matches of this nature and emerged victorious in all but one. Against 17th seed Auger-Aliassime at Wimbledon, Kokkinakis took a 5/0 lead in the third set tie-break, but lost six points in a row before the Canadian let four match points escape in that tie-break. , which thrilled Kokkinakis with his second comeback from 0-2 in sets this season.

“I do whatever it takes,” Kokkinakis said. “Obviously, I would have preferred to make it easier, but I had a couple of lapses of concentration in the first two sets. “I knew it wasn’t too far away, but I lost concentration.”

The job was far from over after the dramatic tie-break. The first round match was suspended due to darkness at 1-1 in the fourth set. The 28-year-old then overcame a nervous night’s sleep, still one set away from defeat.

After four hours and 38 minutes of play, and a handful of rain delays, Kokkinakis scored his first of two wins against a Top 20 player this season (d. Tsitsipas, US Open R1). The Adelaide native raised his arms before tapping his chest with his racquet and flashing a big smile towards his box, which also included former Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt.

Thanasi Kokkinakis celebrates his epic Wimbledon first-round victory.” style=”width:100%;” src=”https://www.atptour.com/-/media/images/news/2024/11/27/17/36/kokkinakis-wimbledon-felix-2024.jpg”>
^{Thanasi Kokkinakis celebrates his debut with victory at Wimbledon. Picture: Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images}

2) R1 Wimbledon, Tomas Machac v. David Goffin 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 7-6(5).
On the same day that Kokkinakis completed his comeback, the magic of London spread throughout the SW19 venue. Machac rallied from 0-5 down in the fifth set, the first such comeback since 1993, to defeat two-time quarterfinalist Goffin. It was a drastic turn of events for Machac, who was originally scheduled to face Andy Murray on Center Court before the former world number one’s retirement.

“This game will forever remain in my mind,” Machac said. “I kept trying to play my game and thought I could at least break him once and see what happened next. I had the opportunity to break him for the second time in a row and I took advantage of it and completely changed course. The game was in my favor.”

The 23-year-old was between a rock and a hard place for much of the match, which was played over two days. Goffin led 6-3, 4-2 before play was suspended for the night. After trailing by two sets to none, Machac trailed by a break on three separate occasions in the third set. Both men earned nine breaks of serve in the three-hour, 17-minute match. Goffin then avenged the difficult Wimbledon loss with a straight sets victory against Machac in the third round of the US Open.

1) R1 US Open, Daniel Evans v. a Karen Khachanov 6-7(6), 7-6(2), 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-4
It was a summer of comebacks for Daniel Evans, who partnered Andy Murray at the Paris Olympics, where they notably battled to overcome seven match points (five in the first round, two in the second round) to reach the quarterfinals. in the final event of the Scotsman.

Evans, 34, once again starred in an unforgettable match at Flushing Meadows. He won the longest match in US Open history, a five-hour, 35-minute thriller against Khachanov, the 23rd seed.

“It was a very, very long battle. It was about seeing who could last the longest at the end,” Evans said. “I just tried to win little by little. At each point, I was obviously suffering a lot with my legs. With the serve I was good on the return, so that gave me a little hope.”

For a moment, it seemed that the crash would not make history. Khachanov took a 4-0 lead in the fifth set and generated four break points on Evans’ serve, but was unable to convert them. The crowd on Court 6, loud throughout the match, urged Evans to return to the match and roared with joy when the very long match ended. Even the third set lasted 72 minutes.

Coming into the tournament, Evans only had four wins in tour-level matches this season and had not defeated a Top 100 opponent since March in Miami. Considered one of the fiercest competitors in the sport, Evans fought, and fought some more, to improve his Lexus ATP Head2Head with Khachanov to 5-0, securing the biggest comeback in a 2024 Grand Slam.

“I think when you’re a kid, they just tell you to fight until the end. I mean, that’s kind of rule number one,” Evans said. “I’ve done it pretty consistently throughout my career.”