What do you think? How long a tennis match can last? One hour? Two Hours? Three Hours? We have seen a few epic tennis matches lasting nearly six hours at the most. But can you ever imagine a tennis singles match lasted for more than 11 hours??? Yes, there was one tennis match which lasted for more than 11 hours and that too in a Grand Slam tournament. Let us know the entire story about this epic tennis match which lasted for 11 hours and 5 minutes!!
The Longest Tennis Match Ever in the History
Basic Details about the Longest Tennis Match Ever
The date was 22nd June 2010 and at 6.13 pm British Summer time on Court No. 18 a first round match at the Wimbledon between John Isner of USA and Nicolas Mahut of France begun. The first set was won by Isner by 6-4, second set went to Mahut as he won it by 6-3 and next two sets went to tie-breaker. 3rd set was won by Mahut by 7-6 (9-7) and 4th set was taken by John Isner by 7-6 (7-3). Till now the match was going like a normal tennis match only. Due to bad light the match was suspended at 9.07 pm.
How it became the longest tennis match ever
The next day, i.e. on 23rd June again the match was started at 2.05 pm to complete the final set and thus the entire match. But the third set kept on going for a further 3 hours and 35 minutes and the result was yet to be conceived. By this time the match was already counted as the longest tennis match ever. When on the second day the final set score was tied at 47-47 the electronic scorecard at the Court No. 18 got stuck. The makers of the scoreboard IBM said that they have only programmed the scoreboard to last till 47-47 games a piece only and they need a day to fix the program. All though at that time the official score was 50-50 games a piece.
The game was again shifted to the next day and both the player resumed their tennis on 24th June and after the score was tied again at 68-68 the next game which was served by Mahut was broken by Isner and took a lead of 69-68 and then after 67 minutes play on the 3rd day Isner hold the serve and finally won the set by 70-68.
The total time this match took was 11 hours and 5 minutes, beating the previous record of 6 hours and 33 minutes of Fabrice Santoro Vs Arnaud Clement at French Open first round of 2004.