10 hours, and they are coming back

Epic Wimbledon match to be continued

Associated Press

WIMBLEDON, England

On and on and on, and on some more, they played — longer than anyone ever had before. And still there was no winner.

John Isner of Tampa, Fla., and Nicolas Mahut of France were tied at 59-59 in the fifth set at Wimbledon after exactly 10 hours of action when play was suspended because of darkness Wednesday night. It is by far the longest match in terms of games or time in the century-plus history of tennis.

“Nothing like this will ever happen again. Ever,” Isner said.

The first-round match already had been suspended because of fading light Tuesday night after the fourth set.

The 23rd-seeded Isner and the 148th-ranked Mahut, who needed to qualify to get into the tournament, shared a court for 7 hours, 6 minutes in Wednesday’s fifth set alone, enough to break the full-match record of 6:33, set at the 2004 French Open.

Never before in the history of Wimbledon, which first was contested in 1877, had any match — singles or doubles, men or women — lasted more than 112 games, a mark set in 1969. Isner and Mahut played more games than that in just the fifth set, and still did not determine a winner, although the American came close: He had four match points — four chances to end things by winning the next point — but Mahut saved each one.

“He’s serving fantastic. I’m serving fantastic. That’s really all there is to it,” Isner said. “I’d like to see the stats and see what the ace count looks like for both of us.”

Well, here they are: Isner hit 98 aces, Mahut 95 — both eclipsing the previous high in a match at any tournament, 78.

All the numbers were truly astounding: They played 881 points (Mahut took 452, Isner 429), 612 in the fifth set (315 for Mahut, 297 for Isner).

Isner compiled 218 winners, Mahut 217. Isner made only 44 unforced errors, Mahut 37.

There were zero service breaks in the fifth set, which is why the end never arrived Wednesday.

Even a courtside electronic scoreboard couldn’t keep up, getting stuck at 47-47 when the score really had risen to 48-48, then eventually going dark entirely.

Yet the pair played on.

After 118 games, no one had won.

The match will continue, stretching into a third day.

“He’s just a champ. We’re just fighting like we never did before,” Mahut said. “Someone has to win, so we’ll come back tomorrow and see who is going to win the match.”

At 58-all, more than 61/2 hours into Wednesday’s action, both players took a bathroom break — and, frankly, who could blame them? Not much later, shortly after 9 p.m., Mahut and Isner approached the net to discuss with a Grand Slam supervisor, Soeren Friemel, whether to keep going.

“I want to play,” Mahut said, “but I can’t see.”

Fans began chanting, “We want more! We want more!” Then they screamed in unison, “Centre Court! Centre Court!” — the only stadium at the All England Club equipped with artificial lights, and therefore the only place play could continue at that hour. When Friemel decided they would stop at that moment and resume Thursday, spectators saluted Isner and Mahut with a standing ovation.

“I have almost no words anymore watching this,” 16-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer said. “It’s beyond anything I’ve ever seen and could imagine. I don’t know how their bodies must feel the next day, the next week, the next month. This is incredible tennis.”

Not that anyone will ever remember, but for the record Tuesday’s portion of the match went this way: Isner won the first set 6-4, Mahut took the next two 6-3, 7-6 (7), and Isner claimed the fourth 7-6 (3).

That portion lasted 2:54, longer than many entire matches, but these guys were just getting started.