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The Never Ending Tennis Match!!!!!!

im following the 'Never Ending Tennis Match' as it has already been dubbed... and its still not finished!

the wimbeldon mens singles match between Mahut of France, and Isner of USA.

its 58-58 in the last set!

yes, i'll say it again, its 58 games a piece in the 5th and final set!

damn, and ithought federer vs roddick in last years final was an epic!

this match has been going on for 10 hours! the IBM slamtracker on the winbeldon website doesnt recognise the 58-58 anymore, its just 8-8.. this is the weirdest game ive ever followed

anyone know what the previous record was??

---------- Post added at 06:33 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:03 AM ----------

play suspended at 59-59 in the 5th set!

not sure why though..

current score is

mahut 4 6 7 6 59
isner 6 3 6 7 59

this is insane! 98 aces for isner to 94 by mahut

Previous record for length was 6 hours, 33 minutes.

I believe, but, I'm not totally sure, the previous record for games played in the FIFTH set at Wimbledon was 21-19.

I know these things off-hand if only because they've (meaning the Wimbledon courtside announcers) had plenty of time in-between to look these sorts of records up, and relay them back to me, the faithful audience observer. I've been following this match since this morning, and it is wild.

Moreover, all previous records (like most aces in a match, duration, etc.) mean nothing now. History is in the making here, right at this moment. Suprisingly, though, the number of double-faults and break chances are below normal for even a regular match, but for this decathalon of a competition, it's amazing these two are still standing.

Also, whatever that record was that Roddick held about winning the most games in a match, yet still losing in the end; yeah, that's shattered, by about double, at the very least. Come to think of it, he's also been detroned as the record holder for fastest serve, which I believe he held for a few years, with a 146 mph heater. Taylor Dent broke that with a 148 mph serve (was it an ace?) before he ultimately fell to Djokovic earlier today.

This might go on for an unprecendented third day of play, as we are about less than an hour away from sunset here (or there, depending on where you are currently situated in the world) in London.

UPDATE: for once, I'm actually not that late.

via ESPN:
John Isner and Nicolas Mahut (59-59 in the fifth set) played for 10 hours before darkness forced their epic, record-setting match to be completed Thursday.

To be more accurate, though, they only played for around ~7 hours today, which still breaks the record by a mile, but they previously played their first four sets last night, before, then, too, ensuning darkness suspended their ongoing and undecided match.

These two are already champions (though, still, I can't possibly see how either one of them advances past this current round).

To shed some more light on this, I just learned that the longest match in Wimbledon history, in terms of total games played, was set back in 1969, with a final tally of 112 games played in one match (P. Gonzales def. C. Pasarell - time taken: 5h12m, over 2 days). The '6:33' mark which I mentioned eariler I knew was in reference to a recent French Open, but I couldn't entirely recall which contest; I've looked it up now, and see that it pitted F. Santaro v. A Clement, at the 2004 French Open, in which it took Santaro 6 hours and 33 minutes to finally triumph over his opponent.

The most famous "endurance match", though, was perhaps that of a contest between J. McEnroe v. M. Wilander, during the 1982 Davis Cup, which McEnroe eventually won, but took over 6 hours and 20 minutes to do so. Also, there were the back-to-back epic Wimbledon finals' clashes which involved the reigning "Master of Grass", Roger Federer, falling to R. Nadal in 2008, and then triumphing over A. Roddick the following season in '09. Both matches were remarked to be instant classics and extraordinary legacies of all-time greatest matches to be witnessed.

These links might have helped anyone a day or a week ago, but this match - then, here and now, continuing into tomorrow - has finally surpassed and united all the "longest" records (save for the individual courts and playing surface mile-markers).

Longest tennis match records - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Longest Tennis Match Ever Continues Thursday - CBS News
Wimbledon Men's Trivia

"I have almost no words anymore watching this. It's beyond anything I've ever seen and could imagine. I don't know how their bodies must feel the next day, the next week, the next month. This is incredible tennis - for them to serve the aces they served and stay there mentally is a heroic effort. As we know, we have no draws in tennis, so there will be a loser. But I guess in this match, both will be winners because this is just absolutely amazing."

—Roger Federer

- - - - -

Quote:

And to think: Isner vs. Mahut could have concluded much, much earlier in the day.

Isner held a match point all the way back in the 20th game of the fifth set, when he was ahead 10-9 with Mahut serving. Mahut double-faulted twice to give Isner a break point and match point, but the Frenchman erased it with an ace.

10-10.

Hard to believe, perhaps, but there wasn't another break point or match point for either player until the 66th game of the set, with Isner ahead 33-32.

Isner smacked a backhand return winner down the line to go ahead 15-40, earning two match points, and then waved his right hand to signal to the overflowing crowd to cheer louder. But he couldn't convert either chance. Mahut delivered a volley winner to erase the first and then a service winner on the second.

Two points later, Isner ceded the game by putting a forehand return into the net, prompting some fans backing Mahut to chant, "Nico! Nico! Nico!"

33-33.

In the 71st game, with Isner serving, he faced a deuce. Two more points for Mahut would have allowed the Frenchman to serve for the match. But Isner delivered a second-serve ace at 124 mph, followed by a service winner.

36-35 for Isner.

Mahut earned his first break points of the fifth set in -- believe it or not -- the 101st game, when Isner missed a forehand wide to fall behind 15-40. Isner saved the first with a service winner at 132 mph. On the second, Mahut tried a lob -- perhaps not the ideal strategy against the 6-foot-9 Isner -- and the American hit an overhead winner. Two more service winners ended the game.

51-50 for Isner.

An opening for Isner came in the 108th game, when Mahut missed a backhand, then a forehand, to fall behind 0-30, putting the American two points away from victory. But Mahut came up with a volley winner and then three consecutive aces.

54-54.

In what would wind up being the final game of the day, with Isner ahead 59-58, Mahut's double-fault -- his 21st -- afforded the American one more match point. Mahut delivered again, smacking an ace to get to deuce. Isner then shanked a return long, crouched and bit his white T-shirt. On the next point, Isner's backhand return sailed wide.

59-59.

And that's where they will resume, once more, the 25-year-old Isner and the 28-year-old Mahut, striving to be better than the other just long enough to win.

-- courtesy of ESPN, via the Associated Press

Amazing. Practically apocalyptic.

It reminds me of the W.P. Kinsella story The Iowa Baseball Confederacy about a legendary game that went over 2000 innings; only to be lost to history.

After an hour and 15 minutes of their continued play today, on top of what has already ben accumulated in the past two days of their first round match-up, American J. Isner finally, and I state it with such emphasis now, FINALLY, beats his counterpart in N. Mahut by a score of 70-68 in th fifth and deciding set.

This happened just minutes ago.
Isner beats Mahut in epic - ESPN

my hats off to these gentlemen. fair play to both these gentlemen.

we will never ever see the likes of this tennis match in all our lives. Live it up boys. regrettably i wish i was there at wimbeldon.

isner now faces 43rd ranked De bakker who also had a long 5 setter winning 16-14 i the 5th. so Isner is in with a chance. with the crowd support now behind him, he may well win. the only problem is that hes played a total of what some players play a whole tournament.

Inser lost is 75 mins today

But he was playing for something about equal to a grand slam in his 1st round match: a place in history that can never be taken away.

Its not surprising he had nothing left today. He was almost delirious on court the day before yesterday when they pulled them off at 59 all

where did they get the enregy....that little pink bunny ?

well the little pink bunny's batteries ran out

Isner gets humbled.

Any man who can play an 11hr tennis match has my respect.

Quote:

Record-breaker John Isner out in straight sets against Thiemo de Bakker
From correspondents in London, England
June 25, 2010 .Tennis record-smasher John Isner finally hit the wall when he was knocked out of Wimbledon in his delayed second round match.

Dutchman Thiemo de Bakker went through to the third round as he coasted to a 6-0 6-3 6-2 victory over the jaded American.

The No.23 seed from America had played for 11 hours and five minutes, and 183 games, in his epic record-breaking first round clash with France's Nicolas Mahut, spread over three days from Tuesday to Thursday.

The Wimbledon authorities hardly did Isner any favours by asking him to play first on court five and his performance was predictably lacklustre.

"I was just low on fuel out there. I didn't really have a chance,'' Isner said.

"It was brutal. Things were looking pretty bleak right from the get-go.

"I have never been this exhausted before.''

The American, whose serve was virtually impregnable against Mahut, lost his first service game of the match - the first time he had dropped it since the second set of his 183-game endurance test against Mahut - and was whitewashed in the first set.

The world No.19 needed treatment on his neck between sets but finally held onto his serve in the first game of the second set before De Bakker reasserted control.

The third set was a similar procession and the Dutch number one wrapped it up in an hour and 14 minutes.

De Bakker, the world No.43, is no stranger to long matches himself, having come through his first round game against Santiago Giraldo, of Columbia, by winning the final set 16-14.

He now faces France's Paul-Henri Mathieu in the round of 16.