WIMBLEDON, England — On and on they played - longer than anyone ever had before. And still there was no winner.
John Isner of Tampa, Fla., and Nicolas Mahut of France were tied at 59-59 in the fifth set at Wimbledon after 10 hours of action when play was suspended because of darkness Wednesday night. It is by far the longest match in terms of games or time in the century-plus history of tennis.
“Nothing like this will ever happen again. Ever,” Isner said.
The first-round match already had been suspended because of fading light Tuesday night after the fourth set.
The 23rd-seeded Isner and the 148th-ranked Mahut, who needed to qualify to get into the tournament, shared a court for 7 hours, 6 minutes in Wednesday’s fifth set alone, enough to break the full-match record of 6:33,set at the 2004 French Open.
Never before in the history of Wimbledon, which first was contested in 1877, had any match - singles or doubles, men or women - lasted more than 112 games, a mark set in 1969. Isner and Mahut played more games than that in just the fifth set, and still did not determine a victor, although the American came close: He had four match points - four chances to end things by winning the next point - but Mahut saved each one.
“He’s serving fantastic. I’m serving fantastic. That’s really all there is to it,” Isner said. “I’d like to see the stats and see what the ace count looks like for both of us.”
For the record: Isner hit 98 aces, Mahut 95 - both eclipsing the previous high in a match at any tournament, 78. All the numbers were truly astounding: They played 881 points (Mahut took 452, Isner 429), 612 in the fifth set (315 for Mahut, 297 for Isner).
Isner compiled 218 winners, Mahut 217. Isner made only 44 unforced errors, Mahut 37.
There were zero service breaks in the fifth set, which is why the end never arrived Wednesday.
Even a courtside electronic scoreboard couldn’t keep up, getting stuck at 47-47 when the score really had risen to 48-48, then eventually going dark entirely.
Yet the pair played on, and after 118 games, no one had won.
The match will continue, stretching into a third day, picking up again today before 3:30 p.m., English time.
“He’s just a champ. We’re just fighting like we never did before,” Mahut said. “Someone has to win, so we’ll come back tomorrow and see who is going to win the match.”
At 58-all, more than 6 1/2 hours into Wednesday’s action, both players took a bathroom break. Not much later, shortly after 9 p.m., Mahut and Isner approached the net to discuss with a Grand Slam supervisor, Soeren Friemel, whether to keep going.
“I want to play,” Mahut said, “but I can’t see.”
Spectators saluted Isner and Mahut with a standing ovation when Friemel decided they would stop at that moment and resume today.
“I have almost no words anymore watching this,” 16-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer said. “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.”
Tuesday’s portion of the match lasted 2:54, with Isner winning the first set 6-4, Mahut took the next two 6-3, 7-6 (7), and Isner claimed the fourth 7-6 (3).
The first four sets encompassed a total of 45 games, less than half of the fifth set alone. To put it in some more perspective: The 2009 Wimbledon final between Federer and Roddick was the longest Grand Slam championship match in history, running 77 games in all.
Isner and Mahut began Wednesday at 2:04 p.m., with the court bathed in sunlight and in heat that topped 80 degrees. As play carried on,shadows crept across the court, and the well-manicured blades of green grass along both baselines wore away, leaving patches of beige dirt. By the time the players left the court, the moon was rising overhead.
Both players showed signs of fatigue and frustration.
Isner wolfed down a sandwich and sipped water during one changeover, and he ate a banana at another. Mahut was visited by a tournament doctor and given some pills to swallow during one break, and later had a finger taped. After missing one shot, Mahut dropped to his knees and covered his head with both hands. Somehow, Mahut summoned the strength to dive for a shot in the fifth set’s 117th game.
Even chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani, sitting in his perch long enough to have taken a trans-Atlantic flight, seemed to be tired.
“This is one of the few times where I feel bad for the umpire,” well-known official berater John McEnroe joked on BBC’s TV coverage.
It was a test of wills tough to compare to another individual sport - unless, perhaps, a golf tournament’s playoff extended for, say, 36 holes. The longest Major League Baseball game in history lasted a mere 8 hours, 6 minutes.
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, just over six hours after the first one. 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, with Isner, 25, and Mahut, 28, striving to be better than the other just long enough to win.
Sports, Pages 17 on 06/24/2010