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At the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, in the Gentlemen's Singles tournament, the American 23rd seed John Isner beat the French qualifier Nicolas Mahut in the longest match in tennis history, measured both by time and number of games. After 11 hours, 5 minutes of play over three days, the match finished 6–4, 3–6, 6–7(7), 7–6(3), 70–68.

The match began at 6:18 pm British Summer Time (17:18 UTC) on Tuesday 22 June 2010. At 9:07 pm, due to fading light, play was suspended at two sets each. After resuming on Wednesday at 2:05 pm, the record for longest match was broken at 5:45 pm. The light faded again, and so play was suspended at 9:13 pm, with the final set tied at 59 games each. Play resumed at 3:40 pm on Thursday, and Isner won at 4:49 pm, the final set having lasted 8 hours, 11 minutes.

Both players broke numerous Wimbledon and tennis records.

Background

The match took place on Court 18 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, where the thirteen-day Wimbledon Championships are held every June and July. The match began on the tournament's second day, and ran on into the fourth, Thursday 24 June.

The Frenchman Mahut was not ranked high enough to qualify for the tournament automatically, and so had to progress first through the qualifying pre-tournament. In this he was seeded 27th. He played three qualification rounds, beating Frank Dancevic 6–3, 6–0, in the first round, then Alex Bogdanovic 3–6, 6–3, 24–22, and finally Stefan Koubek in five sets, 6–7(8), 3–6, 6–3, 6–4, 6–4. He had thus already played an unusually large amount of tennis in the week before the main tournament.

Having played through the qualifying stage, Mahut was drawn against the 23rd-seed American Isner in the first round of Gentlemen's Singles.

The match

Match details

The match started on the tournament's second day, Tuesday 22 June 2010. After four sets the match was halted due to darkness, with the score two sets each. Resuming on 23 June, it became the longest match ever. The match was suspended for a second time because of darkness on the evening of 23 June at 59–59 in the fifth set despite chants of "We want more, we want more" from the onlooking spectators.

Isner drank a "recovery shake" and took an ice bath. Andy Roddick brought take-out food for him and his coach, including "three boxes of pizza, all sorts of chicken and mashed potatoes"; Isner said later that he was so hungry that he could have eaten "12 Big Macs", but reported that drinking coconut water helped him rehydrate and avoid cramping as he had experienced in the past. He slept for less than four hours before arising. Mahut also slept for only a few hours, and had a cold bath and a massage. The next morning the BBC reported that Mahut had been practising and Andy Murray informed them that Isner had been on a treadmill, before the resumption of play.

The match was resumed on 24 June. After a further hour of play, Isner won the final, and deciding set 70–68.

Officials

The chair umpire throughout the match was the Swedish official Mohamed Lahyani. Lahyani said after the match that he was so "gripped by the amazing match" that his concentration stayed solid and he didn't think about eating or going to the toilet. On the second day of the match, two groups of 14 linespeople and four groups of 28 ballboys and ballgirls had to be used in a rotation to support the game. At the end of the match, the umpire announced the score incorrectly, accidentally switching the scores of the two tie-break sets.

Scoreboard failure

On the second day of play, the courtside scoreboard stood still at 47–47 and later went dark. IBM programmers said it was only programmed to go to 47–47 but would be fixed by the next day. The on-line scoreboard at the official website lasted slightly longer: At 50–50 it was reset to 0–0. Users were asked to "please add 50 to the Isner/Mahut game score". An IBM programmer worked on the computerised scoring system until 11:45 pm to accommodate the match's scores for the next day, although it would have again malfunctioned had the match gone beyond 25 more games.

Aftermath

Special recognition

Immediately after the end of the match, both players and the umpire were presented with a special award (crystal bowl and champagne flutes) from the AELTC, organizers of the annual Grand Slam event by British tennis legends Tim Henman and Ann Haydon-Jones, followed by a photo taken showing the result on one of the two Court 18 scoreboards.

Players' subsequent schedules

As the winner, Isner advanced to the second round where he played Thiemo de Bakker on 25 June at 12 pm on Court 5. De Bakker also had a lengthy first round match against Santiago Giraldo, winning by a score of 16–14 in the fifth set. Isner lost to De Bakker 0–6, 3–6, 2–6 in just 74 minutes, without Isner serving a single ace. Isner was visibly exhausted and required medical treatment for neck and shoulder problems throughout the game.

Isner was also due to play a doubles game with his partner Sam Querrey later Thursday (against Michał Przysiężny and Dudi Sela), but it was postponed to Friday. Isner's doubles match was tentatively scheduled as the second match of the day on Court 19 following another men's doubles match; however, they withdrew from the doubles due to Isner having a blister on his toe.

As for Mahut, his doubles match with partner Arnaud Clément against Colin Fleming and Ken Skupski started late Thursday night (incidentally also played on Court 18); the match was suspended with Mahut and Clément having lost the first set 6–7(4). On Friday, Mahut/Clément - Fleming/Skupski was scheduled as the 4th match on Court 18 due to Clément having a third-round singles match on Centre Court against Roger Federer. Due to the match (between Daniel Brands and Victor Hanescu) lasting almost 3 hours and 30 minutes and ended near 8:45pm local time, the doubles match was forced to be postponed again; it is now scheduled as the first match on Court 14 on Saturday.

Reaction

Former players and commentators have called the match historic and unlikely to happen again; many also praised both participants. John McEnroe said, “This is the greatest advertisement for our sport. It makes me proud to be a part of it. We often don’t get the respect we deserve in tennis for the athletic demands it places on players, but this should push that respect way up.” One commentator in The Guardian wrote "In ten years, few will likely remember who won this year's Championships. However, people will be telling their great grand children, who will tell their great grand children, about the day that sport regained its soul."

Sports Illustrated stated that the victory might be a significant "self-esteem boost" for the mental confidence of a rising player like Isner. McEnroe speculated, however, that the match might have shortened Isner and Mahut's careers by six months. A sports surgeon stated that the players had risked dehydration, hyperthermia, and kidney damage due to the match's duration, and that one or both might suffer "some sort of injury or persistent problem over the next six months...shoulder problems, tendonitis, and recurrent knee problems", as well as the inability to "get into a groove" mentally for up to a year.

Records

The match broke several tennis records, including: longest match (11 hours, 5 minutes); longest set (the fifth set required 8 hours, 11 minutes); most games in a set (138 in the fifth set); most games in a match (183); most aces in a match by one player (Isner, 112); total aces in a match (Mahut's 103 aces, the second highest number by a player in a match, brought the total to 215); and consecutive service games held (168: 84 for each player).

The match set the record for most games played in a match. The previous record for a match since the introduction of the tie-break was the 2003 Australian Open quarter-final match, in which Roddick and Younes El Aynaoui played 83 games: Roddick won 4–6, 7–6(5), 4–6, 6–4, 21–19. The previous all-time record was the 112-game 1969 match in which Pancho Gonzales defeated Charlie Pasarell 22–24, 1–6, 16–14, 6–3, 11–9, also in the first round at Wimbledon.

The match was the longest in duration. The previous official record (6 hours, 33 minutes) was set at the 2004 French Open when Fabrice Santoro defeated Arnaud Clément 6–4, 6–3, 6–7(5), 3–6, 16–14. It also passed the unofficial record of 6 hours and 40 minutes set on 25 February 2009, when Chris Eaton defeated James Ward 6–3, 6–2, 6–7(3), 2–6, 21–19 in a playoff match to represent Great Britain in the Davis Cup. The fifth set alone lasted an hour and a half longer than the previous longest match. Indeed, even that portion of the fifth set played on the second day was about half an hour longer than the previous longest match, so necessarily also broke the record for the longest play in a single day.

John Isner served his 79th ace to take the final set score to 39–38 with serve. This surpassed Ivo Karlović's 78 aces that he served on 18 September 2009 in a Davis Cup match against Radek Štěpánek. In all, Isner served 112 aces; Mahut also surpassed the previous record with 103 aces.

Match statistics

Score

	1 32 mins	2 29 mins	3 49 mins	4 64 mins	5 491 mins
Nicolas Mahut (Q)	4	6	7	6	68
John Isner (23)	6	3	6	7	70

Session times

All times in British Summer Time (UTC+1)

Tuesday 22 June 2010

• 6:13 pm – Match begins
• 9:07 pm – Match suspended at two sets all, with 174 minutes elapsed.

Wednesday 23 June 2010

• 2:05 pm – Match resumes
• 5:45 pm – Match sets record for longest in history
• 9:10 pm – Match suspended a second time with the score tied at 59–59 in the fifth and deciding set; elapsed game time was exactly 10 hours.

Thursday 24 June 2010

• 3:43 pm – Match continued on court 18.
• 4:48 pm – Match ended in favour of John Isner, who won the final set 70–68. The match lasted eleven hours and five minutes.

Match statistics

From Wimbledon's Official Website

Other Statistics

From The Times newspaper, 25th June 2010

• 2010 Wimbledon Championships
• Tennis records and statistics
• Tennis matches