Isner - Mahut at Wimbledon 2010

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isner%E2%80%93Mahut_match_at_the_2010_Wimbledon_Championships

for the last 3 days history was made, perhaps overshadowing even the football world cup. the match was off the scale in all regards, just the last set was longer than any other tennis game in history. both players scored over 100 aces (the previous record was 78).

the second game day was over 7 hours long. the court scoreboard halted at 47-47, the online results reset to 0-0 after reaching 50 both. isner was almost fainting near the end of the day, barely moving, but still holding his serves.

today isner finally broke mahut's serve for the first time in the 5th set and won it with a basketball score of 70-68. the match lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes (665min, hehe). this was an incredible, mesmerizing show and both players have my deepest respect.

I'm seriously suspicious that they may have colluded to deliberately do this. To stay constantly neck and neck for over 65 games over a period of 8 hours in the final set seems to me to stretch the bounds of credulity.

What the fuck? I didn't know tennis scores could get that high.

fraggle said:

I'm seriously suspicious that they may have colluded to deliberately do this. To stay constantly neck and neck for over 65 games over a period of 8 hours in the final set seems to me to stretch the bounds of credulity.

almost everyone thought of that as soon as they'd reached the roddick - el aynaoui record, but actually seeing them play, and their exhausted faces... i don't believe it, there's nothing tying those two. even more hilarious is the fact mahut had to advance through qualification - and his first match there against bogdanovic ended with a 24-22 last set. and in round 2 isner will be meeting de bakker who won his match with 16-14 in 5th set. this is too ridiculous to be a set up.

Danarchy said:

What the fuck? I didn't know tennis scores could get that high.

the decisive set in grandslam tournaments or davis cup matches cannot end with a tie-breaker, a player has to win by 2 games.

I missed the first 4 sets on Tuesday, and only came into at 24 games a piece yesterday. I was glued to the TV right up till it was called off last night, and was settled down in plenty of time for play resuming today.

It was truly a fantastic match, one I'll remember for a long time to come. I was rooting for Mahut to win, and honestly thought he was the better player of the two. But I feel nothing but admiration towards both of them, they gave it their absolute all and neither of them deserved to walk away a loser. The quality of tennis, as well as the stamina and determination both had was incredible, and I seriously doubt I'll ever witness such a feat again.

I'm just glad that Wimbledon decided to recognise their efforts by awarding both the umpire and the players a special memento. Even though Mahut lost the match, I'm sure he can at least take some pride in the fact that he helped break more than half a dozen tennis records in a single match, and that his name will go down in history.

Danarchy said:

What the fuck? I didn't know tennis scores could get that high.

That's because there's no tiebreak in the final set...it just keeps on going until someone wins by 2 clear games.

fraggle said:

I'm seriously suspicious that they may have colluded to deliberately do this. To stay constantly neck and neck for over 65 games over a period of 8 hours in the final set seems to me to stretch the bounds of credulity.

So I'm not the only one who had such thoughts.

Still, too bad Mahut didn't win.

I was pretty shocked when I first heard this too. Despite having taken Tennis when I was in middle-school I never would have imagined a game could last that long. The fact that they could keep playing for that long still boggles me as well