United States · Seed No. 23
JOHN ISNER
- Height 2.08 m
- Age at the match 25
- Weapon the serve
- Aces in the match 113
John Isner against Nicolas Mahut. The longest match ever played: an ordinary first round that became infinity on a tennis court — because tennis knows no clock, and that day it proved it.
↓ scroll to relive it
The protagonists
United States · Seed No. 23
France · Through qualifying
It wasn't a final. It wasn't Centre Court. It was a first-round match on Court 18, an outside court with a few hundred seats, between a towering American with an unplayable serve and an elegant Frenchman who had come through qualifying. The kind of match that usually doesn't even make the papers.
It would end up in the history books, on a plaque, and in the Wimbledon museum.
The scoreline
Back then, Wimbledon's fifth set had no tiebreak: play continued until one player led by two games. No one had ever imagined how far that could go.
The endurance
Aces — an all-time record for both
Total points won
Games won in the match
Mahut won 24 more points than Isner.
And lost the match. The cruel geometry of tennis scoring
It's the strangest, most beautiful property of this sport: you don't win by scoring more points, but by scoring them at the right moment. Tennis scoring doesn't add up — it selects. For eleven hours, point after point, Mahut was the better of the two — and it wasn't enough.
The chronicle
Tuesday 22 June
Play begins at 18:13. Four sets in just under three hours, two sets apiece. At 21:07 darkness falls over London and umpire Mohamed Lahyani suspends play. No one imagines a thing.
played 2h 54'
Wednesday 23 June
Just the fifth set, for over seven hours. The court's scoreboard, never built for numbers like these, jams on 47–47. The crowd chants "we want more". As darkness falls the score is 59–59: back again tomorrow. Again.
played 7h 06' — the longest day in tennis
Thursday 24 June
It takes just 65 minutes. At 69–68, Isner finds two shots he'd been waiting two days for: on match point, a backhand passing shot down the line closes out the only break of the entire set. 70–68. Isner collapses to the ground. Mahut, a record-breaker himself, stays in history on the wrong side of the net.
played 1h 05' · finished at 16:47
Afterwards
Drained, Isner lost the next round in three quick sets. But the story wasn't over: a year later, the Wimbledon 2011 draw pitted Isner and Mahut against each other again in the first round. Tiny odds, huge irony. Isner won again — this time in three sets and two hours.
The longest match in tennis history
John Isner (USA) d. Nicolas Mahut (FRA)
6–4 3–6 6–7 7–6 70–68
183 games · 11 hours and 5 minutes
22 – 23 – 24 June 2010