6-4, 3-6, 6-7(7), 7-6(3), 70-68

Because of my day job, I don't get to watch too much tennis coverage, but I do tune in when I can. On the ESPN coverage Wednesday morning, I got to see some of the resumption of the match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut. The two had split the first four sets on Tuesday when play was suspended, and when they picked things up again, it was clear that neither wanted to give up the match. I think it was about 9-9 when I left for work, and it didn't look like the end was anywhere in sight, but I didn't think that necessarily meant anything – the match could have gone into the teens or 20s … or it could end in the next two or three games. That seems to be the way these matches go.
So imagine my amazement when I checked the scores during my lunch break and found they were still going on. I had to do a take a second look, to make sure I had seen right. At that point, the score was in the upper-30s . . . I think. I checked the scores a couple more times that afternoon, and my amazement only grew. When the match ended for the second consecutive day, tied at 59-59, I mentioned the score to one of my co-workers and told her, "This doesn't happen."
Anyone who's been a tennis fan for a while knows that. This doesn't happen – at least, it has never happened before. By the time it got done, and Isner had advanced to the second round, 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(7), 7-6(3), 70-68, this match had shattered all kinds of records. It is the longest match in tennis history – 11 hours, five minutes, four hours, 32 minutes longer than the second longest. The fifth set alone – at eight hours, 11 minutes – was over two hours longer than the second-longest match. The two played a total of 183 games, the most for one match, and the most games in one set – 138.
The two combined for a mind-boggling 215 aces – Isner now has the all-time record for most aces served in a match, 112, and Mahut is second, at 103. The previous record was 78, set last fall by Ivo Karlovic. On Jon Wertheim’s twitter feed, I read that 10 women have served over 103 aces – for all of 2010. The man with the third-most aces for the entire tournament, Ilija Bozoljac, has 58 – in two matches. Slacker.
No doubt, this match will stay with both players for a long time. Most of the time, you can point to a few moments where a win or loss may have come. How many can Mahut point to in this one? How many places can he look and say “I could have won it here?” What will this match do to his career moving forward? This has got to be a devastating loss, no doubt about it, but can he bounce back? We’ll find out.
Isner immediate future is clear – he goes on to the second round, where he’ll play Thiemo de Bakker, and if you thought Mahut was a dangerous opponent … Isner’s got to be exhausted coming out of this one, but de Bakker also had a tough first round, beating Santiago Giraldo of Colombia 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 16-14. No doubt about it, 16-14 is nothing compared to 70-68, and de Bakker’s gotten an extra day of rest, but Isner might not necessarily be a dead man walking when they play tomorrow.
From a logistics standpoint, this match has created a nightmare for tournament organizers. While Isner and Mahut were finishing this first-round match, most of the rest of the bottom half was playing second round matches. Now, Isner vs. de Bakker, and the match featuring their third-round opponent – Mikhail Youzhny vs. Paul-Henri Mathieu – will both be played tomorrow, with the winners playing Saturday for a chance at the Round of 16. The good news is that a lot of the other matches in this section have gone long, meaning the competitive advantage won’t be quite as much as it would have been otherwise. Still, whoever enters the Round of 16 from Rafael Nadal’s section will have an undisputable edge.
Most likely, we won't see the effect of this match on Isner's career until further down the road. It's impossible to know for sure what he'll take out of it, but one thing's for sure - there can be no disputing his toughness. After all, how many tennis players have ever 70-68 to win a tennis match? None of them!
The past three days have been about much more than logistics, though. They’ve been about the sheer beauty and randomness of tennis. After all, who would have thought five days ago, that we’d be talking about Isner and Mahut above any other player in the tournament right now? And absolutely no one would have pointed to this match as being the definitive moment of either man’s career to date. Now, long after both men’s careers are done, their names will go down in the annals of tennis history for one magical match, stretched out over three days, where they played the match no two professional tennis players ever had before.