Treaty or fight?
On June 24, 2010, the longest match in the history of tennis took place at Wimbledon. The authors of the record were two unnoticed second-tier tennis players - John Eisner (USA) and Nicolas Mahut (France). The longest tennis match lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes. Thus, the previous record fell almost twice as high.
Evil tongues say that the match was fixed and its participants simply found a way to get into history. On the other hand, eyewitnesses of the confrontation instruct that everything took place in a stubborn and grueling struggle that cannot be played out.
Match results
The longest tennis match ended with a basketball score of 70:68 in favor of American John Eisner at the Wimbledon tennis tournament on Thursday, June 24, 2010. To the relief of the crowd, the fifth set of the longest match in the history of the sport ended.
Eisner's amazing fight with Frenchman Nicolas Mahut lasted a total of 11 hours and 5 minutes. The final score is 6:4, 3:6, 6:7 (7:9), 7:6 (7:3), 70:68 in favor of the American. From now on, he also holds the record for the number of aces in one match - 112.
Together, the tennis players served 215 times in this match. In the fifth set, where they needed to break away from their opponent by two points to win, they took turns taking their serves. According to Eisner, who eventually reached the second round of Wimbledon, “this will never happen again.”
Previous records
The title of the longest match in the history of professional tennis until today was held by the duel between the Frenchmen Fabrice Santoro and Arnaud Clement, who butted heads in 2004 on the slowest clay surface of Roland Garros for 6 hours 33 minutes. The Wimbledon record was 6 hours 9 minutes.
The world record for the number of aces was previously held by the Croatian Ivo Karlovic - 78 serves in the 2009 Davis Cup match Croatia - Czech Republic.
The meeting was suspended for the first time on Tuesday before the American served in the deciding game. However, on Wednesday the tennis players were unable to determine the strongest in their confrontation; the referees separated them with a score of 59:59 in the decisive game.
Perhaps the participants in this unusual marathon simply wanted to write their names in the history of tennis forever. How else can we explain the fact that during yesterday not one of them was able to break away from their opponent by two points. Although, according to eyewitnesses, immediately before the suspension of the match on Wednesday, the tennis players did everything possible to bring it to a victorious end. At the same time, the fans chanted non-stop: “We want more, we want more!”
The match took place on court 18 of the All England Lawn Tennis Club, which is why the game was not broadcast on leading sports television channels. However, one of the most brilliant masters in the history of tennis, John McEnroe, called it "the most outstanding advertisement for this sport."
Longest tennis match? and got the best answer
Answer from Oriy Teterin[newbie]
In the first round of Wimbledon, the 19th racket of the world, American John Isner, played against the 148th racket of the world, Frenchman Nicolas Maillot.
The match began on Tuesday, June 22. The players played 4 sets, but then it went dark and the continuation was postponed to Wednesday.
On Wednesday, June 23, the opponents played to 59:59 in the fifth game and again the match was postponed due to darkness.
And yesterday, Thursday, John Isner still won 70:68.
The total score in sets was: 6:4, 3:6, 6:7 (7:9), 7:6 (7:3), 70:68.
The guys broke almost all existing tennis records.
For example, in terms of the number of games in one set and match or the number of innings, Isner completed 112.
But one record still stood. Record for the longest continuous game.
In 1984, the opponents exchanged 643 blows in a row for 29 minutes until one of them was able to hit the ball.
Answer from Yomario[guru]
The first round match of the men's singles main event at Wimbledon 2010 between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut, which lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes, became the longest match in the history of world tennis. Along the way, the game broke several more records, including records for the number of games played and aces.
Answer from GlyanaIskenderova[newbie]
11 hours 5 minutes... cool!)
Answer from unknown[guru]
The amateur match between Brian and Steve Seibel lasted 8 hours 15 minutes 1s in Phoenix (USA) on August 14, 2004. The record in the official championships was set by the Spaniards Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco at the Australian Open in 2009. In the semi-finals of the tournament they fought for 5 hours 14 minutes. Nadal won the match.
Answer from Timur Sultangaliyev[guru]
11 hours 5 minutes
Answer from Maria Erusheva[guru]
Last year's Wimbledon, Isner - Mayu.
Grand Slam tournaments and Davis Cup matches are an ideal place to add to the list of record-breaking matches in the history of tennis, because currently only here the format of five-set matches has been preserved.
It is interesting that it was the Davis Cup, the importance of which is considered by many leading tennis players to be much lower than the “majors,” which produced the most long matches, most often indicating the incredible intensity of the struggle.
Of the ten longest matches in men's tennis in the history of the Open era, six represent the Davis Cup, and most of them featured outstanding athletes who enriched the history of the game with more than just these results.
5 hours 41 minutes. Paul-Henri Mathieu - John Isner. Roland Garros 2012, second round - 6/7(2), 6/4, 6/4, 3/6, 18/16
John Isner regularly becomes the subject of the “longest matches” column. Taking the American giant's serve is problematic even for the Big Four players, let alone other tennis players. However, when John comes across an opponent who also categorically does not want to give up his games, a stalemate is created.
In the match with Paul-Henri Mathieu at last year's Roland Garros, the American looked like the favorite, but in the fifth game the Frenchman literally stood up to the applause of his home crowd. The war of nerves ultimately ended with Isner faltering. The match is currently the second longest in French Open history.
5 hours 45 minutes. Mehdi Tahiri - Gilles Muller. Davis Cup 2005, First Group - 6/7(4), 6/4, 7/6(3), 6/7(5), 6/4
The national teams of Morocco and Luxembourg lost their opening matches, so no one wanted to leave the First Group. The fierce battle between the Moroccans, who had lost their former splendor, and the Luxembourgers, who had never shone, was marked by a stubborn and tough confrontation between Mehdi Tahiri and Gilles Muller.
The Moroccan veteran, who has defended the colors of the national team since 1993, resisted desperately and was able to achieve victory. This, however, did not help his team - Luxembourg won and retained their place in the First Group of the Davis Cup.
5 hours 46 minutes. Arnaud Clément - Marc Rosset. Davis Cup 2001, quarterfinals - 6/3, 3/6, 7/6(5), 6/7(6), 15/13
Arnaud Clement is another regular at such matches. In 2001, the French team was heading for its ninth victory in the Davis Cup, but the Swiss - young Roger Federer and the most experienced Marc Rosset - turned out to be an unexpectedly serious obstacle on its way.
It was he, the Olympic champion of Barcelona, who twice equalized the score in the opening match of the match against Clement, and in the fifth game he resisted for twenty-eight games. Clement snatched victory, but the outcome of the match was decided only in the fifth match, which the physically exhausted Rosset was no longer able to enter. Georg Bastl lost to Nicolas Escude in five sets, and the French team advanced to the semifinals.
5 hours 53 minutes. Novak Djokovic - Rafael Nadal. Australian Open-2012, final - 5/7, 6/4, 6/2, 6/7(5), 7/5
But all the fans remember this match very well. And not only because it took place a little over a year ago. “Hot on the heels,” some experts suggested recognizing the match as the best in the history of tennis, but even the most notorious skeptics will agree that it is included in the top ten without any questions.
Both great tennis players showed their best here, giving their all throughout every rally. Rafael Nadal failed to free himself from the “Djokovic complex” in Melbourne, but it was here that he took the first step towards this.
5 hours 59 minutes. Radek Stepanek - Ivo Karlovich. Davis Cup 2009, semi-final - 6/7(5), 7/6(5), 7/6(6), 6/7(2), 16/14
When Ivo Karlovic is serving and the opponents are a strong tennis player, this means that each set is likely to end in a tiebreaker. This is exactly what happened in the opening match of the 2009 Davis Cup semi-final. The problem for Ivo was that Radek Stepanek’s serve also went wrong...
As a result, four games invariably ended in tiebreaks, and according to the results of the marathon fifth set, the more experienced and seasoned Stepanek was stronger. When, in the second match, Tomas Berdych also defeated Marin Cilic in five games, almost everything in this semi-final became clear.
6 hours 4 minutes. Horst Skoff - Mats Wilander. Davis Cup 1989, quarterfinals - 6/7(5), 7/6(7), 1/6, 6/4, 9/7
The Swedish national team, along with the German team, was one of the main favorites of the Davis Cup in the eighties. However, the Swedes faced a very tough opponent in the quarterfinals. The Austrian team, led by the young Thomas Muster, defeated the Australians in the first round, and had to seriously compete with the favorites on the Viennese soil.
However, a few days before the match with the Swedes, Muster was hit by a car in Key Biscayne, as a result of which he tore two knee ligaments at once. But even without their leader, the Austrians fought desperately. 21-year-old Horst Skoff came back twice in the match with the former first racket of the world, and in the decisive set he was able to make such an important break. However, the victory in the match still went to the Swedes, who lost to the German national team in the final of the tournament.
The life of one of the heroes of this match did not really work out. Horst won four ATP tournaments, but was forced to retire in 1995. In 2008, at the age of thirty-nine, Horst Skoff died of a heart attack.
6 hours 21 minutes. Boris Becker - John McEnroe. Davis Cup 1987, World Group playoffs - 4/6, 15/13, 8/10, 6/2, 6/2
It’s hard to imagine, but in 1987 the national teams of Germany and the USA met in a World Group playoff match, having suffered defeats already in the first round of the draw. Not wanting to leave the elite, the team captains brought their best forces to the decisive battle - young Boris Becker and the aging, but still formidable John McEnroe.
At that time, there were no tiebreakers in the Davis Cup, so the main events unfolded in the second and third sets, one of which went to Boris and the other to John. However, two marathon games exhausted the great American so much that after that he only occasionally offered decent resistance. Becker won, and with him the German team, sending the US team into a difficult knockout.
6 hours 22 minutes. John McEnroe - Mats Wilander. Davis Cup 1982, quarterfinals - 9/7, 6/2, 15/17, 3/6, 8/6
Well, five years before, McEnroe was in his prime and at the zenith of his fame. “Junior” did everything he could in the quarterfinal match against the Swedish team, but his partners, Eliot Teltscher and Brian Gottfried, let him down. As a result, McEnroe's second singles match, against Mats Wilander, proved decisive.
McEnroe took the first two sets in the fight, but in the third game the young Swede flatly refused to lose. Mats took literally all the balls, and after a titanic struggle he celebrated victory in the game - 17/15. An inspired Wilander equalized the match - 2:2, and resisted for a long time in the fifth set, until McEnroe remembered that he, after all, was the first racket of the world.
Subsequently, the Americans had no problems winning the Davis Cup - 5:0 with the Australians and 4:1 with the French in the final. But the duel between McEnroe and Wilander became the longest in the history of the Davis Cup.
6 hours 33 minutes. Fabrice Santoro - Arnaud Clément. Roland Garros 2004, first round - 6/4, 6/3, 6/7(5), 3/6, 16/14
The last Roland Garros of the Donadalev era turned out to be extremely interesting. In particular, two outstanding Frenchmen pleased the fans. Santoro and Clement held out their match until darkness, as a result of which the fight had to be postponed to the second day.
But even after the resumption of play, the two brave Frenchmen fought so famously that they eventually set a record for the longest matches in the history of Roland Garros, as well as an absolute record for the Open era. Who could have known that this achievement was destined to last only six years?
11 hours 5 minutes. John Isner - Nicolas Mahut. Wimbledon 2010, first round. 6/4, 3/6, 6/7(7), 7/6(3), 70/68
This match will forever remain in the history of tennis. Three days, one hundred eighty-three games, two hundred and sixteen aces, nine absolute game records. It is unlikely that a fight like this will ever take place. Although, you shouldn’t promise. After the match between Santoro and Clement in 2004, something similar sounded.
By the way, an interesting fact - it took Serena Williams a total of just under ten hours to win the title at Wimbledon 2010 in seven matches - that is, less than this titanic first-round match lasted.
However, do not underestimate women's tennis, because the longest match here lasted 6 hours 31 minutes - and this was in two sets! In 1984, at the WTA tournament in Richmond, American Vikki Nelson defeated her compatriot Jean Hepner with a score of 6/4, 7/6 (9).
This match also set two absolute tennis records. Firstly, the longest rally in the history of tennis was recorded here - 643 strokes in twenty-nine minutes. Secondly, this is the longest meeting in history - one that was played over one day. After all, Clement and Santoro, and especially Mayu and Isner, didn’t get it done in one day.
So women tennis players also have something to brag about. However, in the general mass of five-set matches, men have a much greater chance of setting an outstanding record. I wonder what the 2013 season will please fans in this area?