History is made. The longest tennis match in history was just completed in the first week of Wimbledon. John Isner defeated Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68.
You read that right, 70-68! With the 5th set in Wimbledon played out with no tie-break, both players kept on holding serve until Mahut, who had to serve 65 times to stay in the match, was finally, sadly, broken. This was one of those matches were you just wish that neither player had to lose.
Not only is this the longest match in terms of games played (138 games in just that final set, and 183 games in total!) but also in terms of duration. The entire match took a whopping 11 hours to complete, and this was played over 3 days. Players have won Grand Slam titles spending less time on court than that. The 5th set alone lasted 8 hours, and is longer than the previous record-holder (which lasted 'only' 6 1/2 hours). In fact, when Isner and Mahut resumed play on the third day at 59-all, they still had to play 18 games in more than an hour to determine the winner. That's the exact same number of games played and about the same amount of time in the Kim Clijsters-Maria Kirilenko match.
I've read an article which indicated that the last set is more akin to the scoreline in a basketball game than on a tennis court. I don't think I will see a tennis match last longer or have more games than this, so it's great that I got to watch history be made.
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