Are you wondering what the title of this post means exactly? Let me explain;
American John Isner, the 23rd seed and Frenchman Nicholas Mahut, ranked 148th in the world participated in what the stats above show that it is the longest tennis match by far. They started playing on Tuesday at around 6PM. Two hours and 52 minutes into the match they walked off because the light failed and therefore play had been stopped. Now this is normal. It happens a lot at major tournaments. A totally record smashing match.
ISNER:
MAHUT:
Yesterday, they returned to one of the smallest courts at Wimbledon to continue the battle. Little did they know that the fifth set alone would be longer than any other match played ever. The fifth and final set has no tie-breaker and hence can go on for a long period. 118 games so far and no break of serve. Both Mahut and Isner pounded serve after serve to their opponent smashing ace after ace. The 6-foot-9 Isner had 98 aces as compared to Mahut’s95 and both eclipsed the previous record of 78. Isner had 218 winners and Mahut one less at 217.
Mahut and Isner began their second day of the match at 2:04 PM. Shortly After8PM at 47-47, the electronic scoreboard on Court 18 couldn’t keep up with the players. The umpire was beginning to lose his voice and all the fans really wanted was an end to this match.
Isnerhad his opportunities to win it with a match point in the 20th game and 2 more match points in the 66th game. Mahut though wasn’t deterred and each time came up with aces to continue on with the game.
Nearly 6 hours into the fifth set the players took their first bathroom break when the score was 58-all. Andy Murray joked about this on twitter, “Seriously….. doesn’t anyone have to pee ? umpires included.” At 59-all Mahut approached the chair and said simply, “I think we need to stop now, and so a little over 9PM the match was called for the day due to bad light.
Federer described the match as “absolutely amazing”. “In a way, I wish I was them; in some ways I wish I wasn’t them,” he admitted. Andy Murray was stunned by the tussle. “This is why tennis is one of the toughest sports in the world, this will never ever be matched again,” he Tweeted.
After the second day of play, Mahut commented Someone has to win. Everyone wants to see the end.’ Isner wiped sweat from his face and declared: ‘Nothing like this will ever happen again, ever.’ The crowd were the most happening people out there and at the end of day’s play they simply shouted ‘We want more!’
The previous record for the longest set in a match was set at the 2004 French Open, where Fabrice Santoro and Arnaud Clement went on for six hours and 33 minutes. Santoro eventually won the match 6-4, 6-3, 6-7, 3-6, 16-14. This match’s fifth set has gone on for seven hours and six minutes and still is not complete.
“It’s a marathon,” said Venus Williams, then corrected herself: “It’s longer than a marathon.” “It makes me proud to be a tennis player,” said John McEnroe, working the BBC broadcast, after the 111th game. “It looks like Isner is about to fall over.”
An interesting piece of statistics from CNBC. ”The loser of this match will go home with $16,783.60. That means that, as it stands right now, he has made $19 per point, $28.06 per minute and $102 per game.” “Assuming you had a grounds pass ($30) and watched today’s part of the match – the still incomplete fifth set – you paid 25 cents a game.” “Assuming that four cans of balls with three balls in them are put in to play every 16 games, this match used 131 Slazenger balls.”
Play will resume today about 3:30 PM local time and no one knows what is to come. The match can be finishedwithin the first 5 minutes of coming on to the court or take another 5 hours to find a winner. Whatever the outcome, bothplayers are fighters and both players are spirited. I don’t think the loser can be too disheartened except for the fact that he will be the topic of a trivial question in the future.
The winner is due to play his second round match today but I don’t think that is going to happen. At least one day of rest will be given. The fans too need a rest from all of this. Well there are only a few more hours for the result of the match and the whole world is eagerly awaiting it.
I’m pretty sure this match alone will make it to a DVD box set sometime very soon. I for one will be picking it up and watching it over and over again. It’s purely astonishing.
If you have any comments/feedback/suggestions then please post them in the comment section below or if not then send me an email to me@sahilbhalla.com
For now I’m going but I will definitely be back to post an update on this.
Thu, Jun 24, 2010
Sports