Longest tennis match

What to remember

Three days, 183 games and a fifth set that ended 70-68: in the first round of Wimbledon 2010, John Isner and Nicolas Mahut played for 11 h 05 min, the longest match in professional tennis history. The American won 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68.

A score like that needed an advantage final set, played until one player leads by two games. The tiebreak, brought in between 1970 and 1973, had already made such marathons rarer. Wimbledon adopted it in the final set in 2019, and a 2022 rule change made it compulsory in the deciding set of every Grand Slam. The Olympic Games have used a final-set tiebreak since 2016.

Serving was Isner's weapon: regarded as one of the best servers ever, he hit 253 km/h in a 2016 Davis Cup match, the fastest official serve on the ATP's books. He climbed to world No. 8 in 2018, after winning the Miami Masters 1000 and reaching the Wimbledon semifinals.