No day like any other: The record match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut in Wimbledon

When John Isner from the USA and Frenchman Nicolas Mahut met on June 22nd 2010 in their first round match in Wimbledon, no one suspected that a piece of tennis history was about to be written.

Only two days later, on 24th of Junethe longest match in tennis history could be ended.

After both players had won two sets on the evening of June 22nd, the match was stopped and resumed on June 23rd.

Since there was no tie-break in the decisive fifth round in London, the game had to continue until one of the pros had a two-game lead. But none of the strong servers allowed their service to be taken from them. And it went on and on.

Scoreboard failed

At 47:47 the electronic scoreboard failed. At 59:59 darkness fell over the field again and the decision of the match had to be postponed to June 24th. By then, the game had long since made it into the top sporting news, and against tough competition like the World Cup in South Africa.

After 11:05 hours of pure playing time, Isner finally converted his match point to 70:68. The old “record” of 6:33 hours from a match between Frenchmen Fabrice Santoro and Arnaud Clément in Roland Garros was literally pulverized. The fifth set alone between Isner and Mahut lasted significantly longer at 8:11 hours.

“I’m a bit tired,” Isner said after the match. The American had no chance after the show of strength in the second round and was clearly defeated by Dutchman Thiemo de Bakker.