The Longest Match In Tennis History

This article details longest tennis match records by duration or number of games. The 1973 introduction of the tiebreak reduced the opportunity for such records to be broken. However, among the Grand Slams, only the US Open uses the tiebreak in the fifth set; the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon instead use the advantage set rules in the fifth set. This allowed, for example, the record-smashing Isner v. Mahut match at Wimbledon 2010.

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.

In addition, this match set duration records for:

• Longest play in a single day: The first 118 games of the fifth set, played on 23rd of June 2010, lasted 7 hours and 6 minutes. This time is longer than the entire Nelson-Hepner match (below) and any other match in tennis history.
     
• Most games in a single day: 118, on the 23rd of June.

 

 John Isner, Nicolas Mahut and Chair Umpire Mohamed Lahyani

 John Isner

 Nicolas Mahut

Sources: Wikipedia.org, Hamish Blair/Getty Images

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