The Tennis Match That Lasted 11 Hours
AtWimbledon2010,JohnIsnerandNicolasMahutplayedamatchsolongitbrokethescoreboard,lasted3days,andleftbothmenbarelyabletowalk.
Day One
It started as a routine first-round match on an outside court at Wimbledon. John Isner, a 6'10" American known for his massive serve, faced Nicolas Mahut, a 30-year-old Frenchman ranked 148th in the world.
Neither player was a star. Court 18 was a small venue with a few hundred spectators. Nobody expected anything unusual.
The first four sets were competitive but not extraordinary. They split them 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6. Then the fifth set began, and the match entered uncharted territory.
Neither player could break the other's serve. Game after game, set after set, they held. The score reached 6-6, then 10-10, then 20-20. The crowd grew. The tension was excruciating.
At Wimbledon, the final set had no tiebreak. You had to win by two clear games. If both players held serve, the set could last forever. On this day, it nearly did.
At 59-59, with light fading, the match was suspended. Both players walked off the court in a daze. They would have to come back tomorrow.
Day Two
They returned on June 23. The crowd on Court 18 had swelled — word had spread overnight. The players warmed up, took their positions, and continued as if picking up a conversation mid-sentence.
They kept holding serve. 60-60. 65-65. The scoreboard operator manually updated the numbers until the board ran out of digits and froze. Unofficial counters in the crowd took over.
By the end of the match, Isner had served 113 aces and Mahut had served 103 — both obliterating the previous record for a single match (51). Combined, they hit 216 aces.
At 32-32 on Day Two (the fifth set now at 91-91 overall in games), darkness fell again. The match was suspended for a second time. Both players had now been locked in the same match for over nine hours of playing time.
Day Three
On June 24, they came back for a third day. The crowd was massive, with spectators climbing trees and perching on buildings to see Court 18.
The end came at 70-68 in the fifth set. Isner broke Mahut's serve — the only break in the entire set — to win the match. He fell to the ground. Mahut stood at the net, devastated but dignified.
The final statistics were staggering:
- Total time: 11 hours, 5 minutes
- Fifth set: 8 hours, 11 minutes
- Total games: 183
- Isner's aces: 113
- Mahut's aces: 103
- The previous longest match record: 6 hours, 33 minutes
The match was so long it broke multiple physical records beyond tennis. The ball boys were rotated in shifts. The chair umpire, Mohamed Lahyani, sat in his chair for almost the entire duration. And the match directly led to rule changes — Wimbledon introduced a final-set tiebreak at 12-12, starting in 2019.
Isner, depleted, lost his second-round match in straight sets the following day. Mahut became a folk hero in France. Wimbledon installed a plaque on Court 18 reading: "The Longest Match."
Day One: the beginning
A routine first-round match on an outside court. Nobody expected it to last three days.
By Day Two, the scoreboard had given up.
The numbers
216 combined aces, 183 total games, and a fifth set that lasted longer than any complete match in history.
The final point changed tennis rules forever.
The rule change
After the Isner-Mahut marathon, Wimbledon introduced a tiebreak at 12-12 in the final set. The match that can never happen again.
What you now know
- The match lasted 3 calendar days because Court 18 had no floodlights — play was suspended twice at nightfall
- Both players smashed the ace record: Isner hit 113 and Mahut 103, destroying the previous record of 51
- The match directly led to Wimbledon introducing a final-set tiebreak at 12-12 starting in 2019