Wimbledon, England. After three days and more than 11 hours, the tennis match that would not end finally did.
John Isner and Nicolas Mahut left Court 18 at Wimbledon on Thursday having long since established records for the longest match, in both time elapsed and number of games, in professional tennis history.
After the first-round match passed the 11-hour mark, Isner hit a backhand passing shot to win the marathon match 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (3), 70-68.
“Nothing like this will ever happen again,” Isner said after the chair umpire suspended the match at 9:11 p.m. on Wednesday evening. “Ever.”
That came 7 hours, 6 minutes in. Not seven hours into the match. Seven hours into the fifth set. At that point, Isner and Mahut had produced an epic standstill, two sets apiece, 59-59 suspended in time.
A BBC presenter asked Isner after the match how he felt about having to play his men’s doubles match a half-hour later.
“That’s kind of a mean joke,” he said, smiling. “I don’t even want to think about that. We’ll go back to the locker room and see what happens.”
As the match wore on, Isner, 25, appeared ready to collapse. He looked tired. Beyond tired. Can-you-believe-my-match-lasted-11-hours tired. He looked as if he wanted to cry, or crawl off the court, or find the nearest bed and sleep for a year or five.
Instead, at 58-58, he tossed his racket on the grass and lumbered toward the bathroom. That might seem insignificant. So might a first-round match at Wimbledon between unheralded players.
Isner returned and scratched out his fifth match point, only to watch Mahut boom another ace. Shortly afterward, Mahut, a 28-year-old Frenchman, approached the chair umpire and said he could no longer serve or see. Isner threw his head back, clearly miffed at the direction — Thursday, round three — the match was headed.
“We couldn’t agree to play,” he said. “So they canceled.”
Roger Federer walked onto Court 1 for his second-round match while Isner and Mahut were at 11-11 in the fifth. Federer won, showered, dressed and pushed back his news conference at least three times. In some ways, Federer said, he wished that he were Isner or Mahut.
In other, more obvious ways, he did not.
“I’m aware, yes,” Federer said. “I’d be a fool if I wouldn’t know. This is a special match. I hope somehow this is going to end.”
While Federer addressed the news media, 23rd-seeded Isner and unseeded Mahut kept on their serve-dominated match. Both broke the men’s singles record for aces in one match, with Isner finishing with 112 aces and 10 double faults to Mahut’s 103 aces and 21 double faults.
Neither man had much going receiving serve, though. Isner won just two of his 14 break points, while Mahut was 1 for 3.
The players ran out of changes of shirts. The fans lined Court 18, five deep in some spots, and they climbed the railings and peeked through one hole in the fencing for better views.
At the University of Georgia, where Isner went to college, some 65 tennis campers gathered around a television. Watching Isner, Manuel Diaz, his college coach, thought back to one national indoor final, when Isner injured his foot days beforehand and still managed to hobble out of bed to win.
“That’s the kind of guy he is,” Diaz said. “So this is not a huge surprise for me.”
In Medina, Ohio, Vicki Nelson heard of Isner’s match and went inside to watch. It was Nelson who once held the record for the longest match in tennis history, a full 6 hours and 31 minutes against Jean Hepner in Virginia, or shorter than Wednesday’s incomplete fifth set.
Nelson and Hepner played their match in one day, not three, but still she felt for Isner and his mother, Karen.
“It must have been agony for her,” Nelson said.
Back at Wimbledon, both Federer and Roddick were reminded of their five-set final here last year, a relative sprint taken by Federer, 16-14. Roddick noted that the men’s game lends a big advantage to big servers.
Federer maintained afterward that Wimbledon does not need to institute tie-breakers in the fifth set.
“It’s perfect the way it is,” Federer said. “It’s unfortunate these guys are going to be a little bit tired tomorrow and the next day and the next week and the next month.”
The New York Times
Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com
John Isner and Nicolas Mahut left Court 18 at Wimbledon on Thursday having long since established records for the longest match, in both time elapsed and number of games, in professional tennis history.
After the first-round match passed the 11-hour mark, Isner hit a backhand passing shot to win the marathon match 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (3), 70-68.
“Nothing like this will ever happen again,” Isner said after the chair umpire suspended the match at 9:11 p.m. on Wednesday evening. “Ever.”
That came 7 hours, 6 minutes in. Not seven hours into the match. Seven hours into the fifth set. At that point, Isner and Mahut had produced an epic standstill, two sets apiece, 59-59 suspended in time.
A BBC presenter asked Isner after the match how he felt about having to play his men’s doubles match a half-hour later.
“That’s kind of a mean joke,” he said, smiling. “I don’t even want to think about that. We’ll go back to the locker room and see what happens.”
As the match wore on, Isner, 25, appeared ready to collapse. He looked tired. Beyond tired. Can-you-believe-my-match-lasted-11-hours tired. He looked as if he wanted to cry, or crawl off the court, or find the nearest bed and sleep for a year or five.
Instead, at 58-58, he tossed his racket on the grass and lumbered toward the bathroom. That might seem insignificant. So might a first-round match at Wimbledon between unheralded players.
Isner returned and scratched out his fifth match point, only to watch Mahut boom another ace. Shortly afterward, Mahut, a 28-year-old Frenchman, approached the chair umpire and said he could no longer serve or see. Isner threw his head back, clearly miffed at the direction — Thursday, round three — the match was headed.
“We couldn’t agree to play,” he said. “So they canceled.”
Roger Federer walked onto Court 1 for his second-round match while Isner and Mahut were at 11-11 in the fifth. Federer won, showered, dressed and pushed back his news conference at least three times. In some ways, Federer said, he wished that he were Isner or Mahut.
In other, more obvious ways, he did not.
“I’m aware, yes,” Federer said. “I’d be a fool if I wouldn’t know. This is a special match. I hope somehow this is going to end.”
While Federer addressed the news media, 23rd-seeded Isner and unseeded Mahut kept on their serve-dominated match. Both broke the men’s singles record for aces in one match, with Isner finishing with 112 aces and 10 double faults to Mahut’s 103 aces and 21 double faults.
Neither man had much going receiving serve, though. Isner won just two of his 14 break points, while Mahut was 1 for 3.
The players ran out of changes of shirts. The fans lined Court 18, five deep in some spots, and they climbed the railings and peeked through one hole in the fencing for better views.
At the University of Georgia, where Isner went to college, some 65 tennis campers gathered around a television. Watching Isner, Manuel Diaz, his college coach, thought back to one national indoor final, when Isner injured his foot days beforehand and still managed to hobble out of bed to win.
“That’s the kind of guy he is,” Diaz said. “So this is not a huge surprise for me.”
In Medina, Ohio, Vicki Nelson heard of Isner’s match and went inside to watch. It was Nelson who once held the record for the longest match in tennis history, a full 6 hours and 31 minutes against Jean Hepner in Virginia, or shorter than Wednesday’s incomplete fifth set.
Nelson and Hepner played their match in one day, not three, but still she felt for Isner and his mother, Karen.
“It must have been agony for her,” Nelson said.
Back at Wimbledon, both Federer and Roddick were reminded of their five-set final here last year, a relative sprint taken by Federer, 16-14. Roddick noted that the men’s game lends a big advantage to big servers.
Federer maintained afterward that Wimbledon does not need to institute tie-breakers in the fifth set.
“It’s perfect the way it is,” Federer said. “It’s unfortunate these guys are going to be a little bit tired tomorrow and the next day and the next week and the next month.”
The New York Times
Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com