John Isner loses French Open match that lasts nearly 6 hours

Associated Press

PARIS

This, then, is who John Isner is for now: The Marathon Man of Tennis, the guy who plays and plays and plays, for hours on end, until the last set seems interminable.

At Wimbledon two years ago, he won 70-68 in the fifth, the longest set and match in tennis history. At Roland Garros on Thursday, as afternoon gave way to evening, the 10th-seeded American lost 7-6 (2), 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 18-16 to Paul-Henri Mathieu of France in the second round, a 5-hour, 41-minute test of stamina and attention span.

This one goes in the books as the second-longest match, by time, in French Open history.

“I just didn’t get it done. I felt like I got caught in patterns that weren’t ideal for me,” said Isner, whose exit means there are no U.S. men in the third round for the first time since 2007. “I wasn’t going for my shots at certain points in the match, and that comes from a little bit of a lack of confidence.”

If Isner is going to become more than a novelty act, he needs to win encounters like Thursday’s, and not because of the duration but because it was a first-week Grand Slam match against a player ranked 261st who got into the field thanks to a wild-card invitation from the tournament.

He helped provide easily the most intrigue on a day that featured straight-set wins for defending champions Rafael Nadal and Li Na. But it also ended after 9 p.m., forcing organizers to postpone until today the match involving Maria Sharapova that was supposed to follow.

About 10 hours earlier it appeared a man seeded even higher than Isner would be on his way out of the tournament: No. 4 Andy Murray’s back was so painful he could barely move.

Or so it seemed.

For the better part of an hour, the three-time major finalist looked miserable. He grimaced. He clutched at the small of his back. He contorted his body. He stepped gingerly, as though barefoot on a hot day at the beach. He considered quitting.

“Just kind of gritting my teeth,” Murray said, “and [trying] to find a way of turning the match around, because I was a few points, probably, from stopping.”

And then, thanks in large part to a couple of massages from a trainer, Murray began to feel better. It helped, too, that his opponent, Jarkko Nieminen, was incapable of taking advantage of Murray’s nearly incapacitated state. So Murray managed to come back to win 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 and reach the third round at Roland Garros for the fifth consecutive year.

What’s unclear, even to Murray, is how his back will be for his next match.

“I have no idea what will happen in two days,” said Murray.