The 2010 edition of Wimbledon will be remembered for one of the most absurd tennis matches in history. John Isner vs Nicolas Mahut wasn’t a classic, but it spanned 665 minutes and three days.
Isner vs Mahut wasn’t one for the purists
Wimbledon 2010 can lay claim to the longest tennis match in history. Huge-serving American John Isner eventually got the better of Frenchman Nicolas Mahut in the first round of the men’s singles. 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68 was the final, gob-smacking scoreline which eventually led to a rule change at Wimbledon.
Final set contained 138 games
Playing on court 18 on June 22, 2010, the pair played four sets on the day when play was halted due to a lack of natural light. They returned the following day, both exchanging holds of serve until bad light stopped play again and this clash had to stretch into an unprecedented third day. The electronic scoreboard stopped working at 47-47 in the fifth set as it had not been programmed to work display scores beyond that.
The Wimbledon match that never ended, finally ended
After 168 consecutive service holds, several match points saved and over 100 aces each, Isner finally found a way through, holding serve in the 137th game of the fifth set, and then breaking Mahut in the 138th. The fifth set alone lasted eight hours and 11 minutes. Isner went on to lose his second round match 6-0, 6-3, 6-2 to Thiemo de Bakker, clearly feeling the effects of his marathon match. For the record, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams were the singles champions in 2010.
Grand Slam tournaments in 2025 now decide matches at 6-6 with a 10-point match tiebreak to avoid this farcical situation from happening again.
