Isner-Mahut Locked In Historic Match

© Getty ImagesThe supervisor suspended play at 59-59 in the fifth set due to bad light.

History was made on Court 18 at the All England Club Lawn Tennis Club on Wednesday as John Isner and Nicolas Mahut remain locked in the longest tennis match ever in the first round of The Championships. The drama is set to continue into Thursday, though, as play was suspended due to bad light with the score level at 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(7), 7-6 (3), 59-59.

The No. 23-seeded Isner has had four match points in the fifth set, with Mahut denying the American once at 10-9, twice at 33-32 and once more in the final game as he struck his 95th ace of the match. Isner has faced just two break points, saving both in the 101st game of the fifth set.

After bad light had suspended the match on Tuesday evening, play resumed at the beginning of the titanic fifth set and, with the match still to reach its conclusion, it has already broken all manner of tennis records.

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Interviewed by the BBC as they made their way off court, Mahut said: “He (Isner) is just a champ, we're just fighting like we never did before. We're going to come back tomorrow and see who will win. The crowd is just fantastic; they'll have to come back tomorrow.”

When asked how he managed to hold serve to level with Isner 59 times in the final set, the Frenchman explained: “I just wanted to win the game I was playing, that was it.”

“Nothing like this will ever happen again, ever,” declared Isner. “He's serving fantastic, I’m serving fantastic, that’s all there is to it."

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The match time currently stands at 10 hours exactly, with the final set lasting seven hours and six minutes. 163 games have been played so far. Both the match duration and the number of games set a new record for the longest-ever tennis match in history, smashing the previous record of the six-hour, 33-minute match contested by Fabrice Santoro and Arnaud Clement in the 2004 Roland Garros first round.

The previous longest singles match in terms of games came at Wimbledon in 1969, when 112 games were played as Pancho Gonzales defeated Charlie Pasarell 22-24, 1-6, 16-14, 6-3, 11-9.  The previous longest fifth set in Grand Slam men’s singles play came at the 2003 Australian Open, when Andy Roddick edged Younes El Aynaoui 21-19 in the quarter-finals.

Both players have also broken the aces record. The 25-year-old Isner now holds the new record, since the ATP began keeping records in 1991, with 98 so far. Mahut has fired 95 aces. Croatian Ivo Karlovic held the previous record, serving 78 aces in the 2009 Davis Cup World Group semi-final between Croatia and Czech Republic; he lost the match to Radek Stepanek.

The match has also produced the most number of combined aces during a match with 193 in total. The Karlovic-Stepanek Davis Cup match was the previous record holder with 96 aces fired overall.

The eventual winner of the match will face Dutch Thiemo De Bakker, who also came through a lengthy fifth set, though it was well short of Isner and Mahut’s marathon effort. De Bakker battled past Colombian Santiago Giraldo 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 16-14.