What do you think of this fact?
Plenty of tennis matches run long. The one between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut is in a league of its own. In the first round of Wimbledon 2010, the two played for 11 hours and 5 minutes, spread over three days, and the fifth set ended 70-68. According to Guinness World Records, it is still the longest professional tennis match ever.
One match, three days
It started at 6pm on 22 June 2010 on Court 18, a side court. American Isner faced Frenchman Mahut, who had only made the draw through qualifying. That first evening it got too dark to play, with the score at two sets all.
The fifth set began the next day. Back then, Wimbledon had no tiebreak in the final set, so they just kept playing. And playing. At 59-59, it got too dark again. Only on 24 June did Isner win, 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68.
The fifth set alone lasted 8 hours and 11 minutes, longer than any complete match before it. In total, the two played 183 games.
The scoreboard gives up
At some point even the technology quit. The courtside scoreboard was only designed to go up to 47-47. After that it broke and had to be fixed that evening. Nobody had planned for a set like this.
Then there were the aces: Mahut hit 103, and Isner 112 or 113, depending on the source. The previous record for a single match was 78, set by Ivo Karlović.
Isner lost his second-round match to Dutchman Thiemo de Bakker, 0-6, 3-6, 2-6.
The end of endless sets
Isner kept up his reputation. In the 2018 semifinal, he lost to Kevin Anderson 24-26 in the fifth set. After that, according to Tennis.com, Wimbledon ended more than 100 years of tradition and brought in a final-set tiebreak at 12-all.
With a tiebreak in place, a 70-68 final set is no longer possible. Court 18 holds a record that is basically booked forever.