Wednesday, June 23, 2010

BREAKING NEWS: Longest Tennis Match Ever Not Over Yet...

At the All England Lawn and Tennis Club today, the 23rd seed (and 19th-ranked player in the world) John Isner was taking on French qualifier and 148th-ranked Nicolas Mahut...

And they went a while... and they're not done yet...

In a marathon that has exceeded nine hours and 406 minutes in the fifth set alone, the Isner-Mahut match became the record-holder for most games ever in a set and a match, longest match ever, longest match in Wimbledon history, and the most aces in a match.

Here's the 100th game in the fifth set...
((HT: AELTC/SportRO/RealMadagascar))


Isner was actually scheduled to play men's doubles with Sam Querry, but the match had to be pushed back since the University of Georgia grad was otherwise occupied in the marathon 5th set.

Think about it... if each of the four previous sets went to tiebreakers it would make 52 games total. Isner and Mahut each won more than that in the last set alone.

Here's some stats...not including the bathroom break at 58-all in the fifth, and the fact that both the Court 18 scoreboard and the tournament SlamTracker were broken at 50-plus...

The game carried from the day before because of darkness, and when Mahut called for light and Isner wanted to serve, that was where the players disagreed and the match was suspended at 59-all.

You've got to be kidding me...

Isner has 98 aces and Mahut only 94...
Isner has 333 winners and Mahut only 318...
Mahut has more points won 449 to 428...

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