During the 2010 Wimbledon Championship, history unravelled on Court 18 as the American John Isner seeded 23(at that time) faced the French qualifier Nicolas Mahut. Relentlessly, both players were crashing the balls from side to side and within no hours it became the longest match to have been ever played. But after all the effort there was only going to be one winner. Who?
The Battle Began at 6:13 pm on Tuesday, 22 June 2010
It was the first round of the men’s singles match where John Isner was up against Nicolas Mahut. No one knew what was about to unfold. Then starts the first point… The match was just like any other tennis match, and in short notice, day 1 was complete and suspended due to fading light at 9:07 pm. Then began another day. The first two sets weren’t too long as each of the players broke the opponents game during the set. Gradually, the time piled on as the third and fourth set went to tiebreakers with both players winning a set each. The next part of the story is what made this match unlike any other.
The Final Set
Prior to the rule change that took place in Wimbledon 2019; to win the match in the final set, you’d have to lead by 2 games. Therefore, with both players fighting for their life, it led to the final set alone lasting up to 8 hours 11 minutes, after having played 138 games! Now that’s what I call a world record. Additionally, the overall amount of aces in the match was 216 making it yet another world record. I tell you, after coming out of that match the spectators might not have been able to fell their hands, due to clapping as tirelessly as the players hitting the shots.
People’s Reaction
I wasn’t watching the match but what happened on that court, throughout the course of those three days, was possibly never going to happen again. It marks as one of the greatest and most historic events of the entire sporting industry. Moreover, after a match like that, in which both players take their physical capability to the maximum, we give all respect to them. In fact, John McEnroe (winner of 7 Grand Slams) said himself, “We often don’t get the respect we deserve in tennis for the athletic demands it places on players, but this should push that respect way up”.
Rule Change
Playing long matches like this one can be both difficult for players and the schedule of The Wimbledon Championship hence, a new rule came into place after yet another marathon of a match featuring, you guessed it… John Isner and Kevin Anderson which lasted 6 hours and 36 minutes. Anyway, the rule announced was that if the final set score is 12–all the match goes to a tiebreaker (other Grand Slams have their own different rules). This rule was first used in the men’s singles final of Wimbledon 2019 of which Novak Djokovic (defending champion & winner of 17 Grand Slams) faced Roger Federer(winner of 20 Grand Slams) which went to a fifth set tiebreaker at 12-all.
Tennis only has one winner and this time John Isner got the upper-hand. The difference between Isner winning or losing that match came down to 1 point amidst playing 980 points. However, in this match, both players came out as heroes and gained respect from battling on the court for 11 hours 5 minutes.
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