John Isner - Nicolas May - 11:05 (6: 4, 3: 6, 6: 7, 7: 6, 70:68)
June 24, 2010 forever entered the history of tennis. This day did not just take place, but only the longest match ended. For three consecutive days, John Isner and Nicolas Mayu found out who is more worthy of entering the second round of Wimbledon, and the American athlete left the victory after 11 hours and 5 minutes of a grueling game.
On the first day, June 22, tennis players managed to spend four sets, but still did not find the best because of the onset of darkness. After returning to the court on the 23rd, the number of games played began to grow steadily and did not stop at all. Izner had a chance to end the meeting that day, but he never realized any of his four matchballs, one of which he got after winning off at 15:40. With a score of 59:59 for games, the referee again interrupted the match until the next day.
At that time, Isner and Mayu had already spent a record amount of time on the court, but they still were in no hurry to finish the match. They won nine more games when the denouement finally arrived. Izner managed to win back from the 0:30 account in the 137th game and hold the pitch, and then finally earn a break point. Exhausted Mayu no longer resisted, and Isner brought the match to victory.
How incredible was that game that ended ten years ago, at least the fact that the scoreboard at the stadium broke at a score of 47:47, as it was not designed for such large numbers, was incredible. For the same reason, the online broadcast on the official website was reset at 50:50.
Tomas Berdych / Lukas Rosol - Stan Wawrinka / Marco Ciudinelli - 7:02 (6: 4, 5: 7, 6: 4, 6: 7, 24:22)
Since then, only the participants of the doubles match of the Czech Republic and Switzerland match in the 2013 Davis Cup have been able to approach Isner and May record. Tomas Berdych and Lukas Rosol spent a little more than seven hours to beat Stan Wavrinka and Marco Ciudinelli and get one point for his team, which allowed them to reach the quarter finals.
The Czech couple was the favorite of the meeting, but for a very long time could not confirm this. As soon as they won the set, the Swiss answered the same. The decisive party, too, passed in a bitter struggle and exceeded in duration all the previous ones combined. Berdych and Rosol 12 times were on the verge of winning the match, but were able to finish the game only after Kyudinelli’s offensive double error at the score of 23:22 in the fifth set. Although this game was the second longest among all tennis matches, its participants were able to meet one day.
Leonardo Mayer - Joao Souza - 6:43 (7: 6, 7: 6, 5: 7, 5: 7, 15:13)
The second longest singles match was held as part of the first round of the Davis Cup. In 2015, Argentinean Leonardo Mayer spent 6 hours and 43 minutes to beat Brazilian Joao Souza and equalize the total score in the confrontation between the two teams.
Mayer could have finished the meeting much earlier. He won the first two sets in tiebreaks and led with a score of 4: 1 in the third. But at that moment, Souza attempted a truly heroic comeback. He evened the score in batches and resisted for a long time in the decisive set, but nevertheless admitted defeat in 28 games.
After this match, Federico Delbonis and Tomaz Bellucci entered the fifth game between the teams, but because of their predecessors they started so late that they did not have time to finish the game on Sunday. In a rare case for the Davis Cup, the fate of a trip to the next round was decided on Monday, and it went to the Argentines.
Kevin Anderson - John Isner - 6:36 (7: 6, 6: 7, 6: 7, 6: 4, 26:24)
Eight years later, Isner again took part in one of the longest matches in history. Only this time he lost to South African Kevin Anderson, and the stakes in this game were much higher - the winner reached the Wimbledon finals.
Before that, Anderson spent more than four hours to beat Roger Federer, but he still had enough strength for a new test. The players exchanged the first two sets without making a single break - only Izner managed to win someone else's serve in the third installment. But Anderson then managed to recoup and transfer the match to the fifth set.
A tennis player from South Africa has repeatedly been close to a break, but managed to achieve it only after an incredible episode in the 49th game. Anderson fell during one of the rallies and dropped his racket, but managed to get up and eventually pick up a point for himself. On courage, he won the whole game and the match.
The second match in eight years lasting more than six hours forced the Wimbledon organizers to cancel the historical rule that two more games must be won to win the fifth set. Since 2019, with a score of 12:12, tennis players are required to hold a tie-break. Now, extra-long matches are possible in theory only at the Roland-Garros.
Fabrice Santoro - Arno Clement - 6:33 (6: 4, 6: 3, 6: 7, 3: 6, 16:14)
It was at the main clay tournament that the record for the duration of tennis matches was set, which was kept until Isner and Mayu met. In 2004, in a first-round match, Fabrice Santoro and Arno Clement sorted out the relationship for two days, after spending a little more than six and a half hours on the court.
On the first day, two Frenchmen managed to conduct four sets and bring the fifth to a score of 5: 5. Santoro both before the break and after managed to escape from the matchball, so it was he who owned the initiative in this meeting. The denouement occurred in the 30th game, in which Santoro was supposed to serve for the match, but Clement surprised him with three consecutive rallies won. Santoro found the strength in himself to even the score, and then make an ace and finally finish the game.
Wicky Nelson - Gene Hepner - 6:31 (6: 4, 7: 6)
It is almost impossible for women to get closer to the longest men's matches, if only because they don’t have five-set matches. It is all the more surprising that the record-long meeting of the girls consisted of only two games and over the course of 20 years surpassed all the games ever played by men in professional tennis.
Americans Wicky Nelson and Gene Hepner would have disappeared from the memory of the fans, if not for their match of the first round of the tournament in Richmond in 1984. They spent 6 hours and 31 minutes on the court.
That was not the only record of two rivals - they went down in history thanks to the longest draw of one point. With a score of 11:10 in favor of Nelson, the girls threw the ball for 29 minutes in a row at the tie-break of the second game. The point was left for Nelson, who put an end to this shootout of 643 hits. It is interesting that when she fell to the ground from fatigue after a point she won, she received a warning from the referee for delaying the time.
Fortunately for both tennis players, they played just two more points, and both remained for Nelson.