#StatAttack: 5 longest Grand Slam Tennis matches ever
Last night, we saw an epic encounter between Kevin Anderson and John Isner at Wimbledon 2018. The 6 hours and 35 minutes semi-final delayed the next match between Nadal and Djokovic, which shall resume today. Notably, Anderson has asked Wimbledon officials to consider introducing 5th set tie-breakers to reduce the duration of such ties. Here, we look at the five longest Grand Slam matches.
A second round encounter between Mathieu and Isner, in the 2012 French Open, lasted for an epic 5 hours and 41 minutes, with the unseeded Frenchman Mathieu emerging victorious. This 76-game contest set a new record of the most games played in a single fixture at the clay major. Isner's 98 unforced errors led the way to his defeat against the 261st ranked Mathieu.
Serbian Djokovic and Rafa Nadal met each other at the final of the 2012 Australian Open, which turned out to be the longest Grand Slam final of all time. The unquenchable spirit of Djokovic turned things in his favour after the marathon 5 hour and 53 minutes encounter. The score-line of 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (5-7) tells only half the tale.
The Court Suzanne Lenglen saw an extraordinary match between Fabrice Santoro and Arnaud Clement, when it took 6 hours and 33 minutes to decide the winner. Santoro came back from losing the first 3 points of the 30th game, of the fifth set, to clinch this match. The two Frenchmen and former Davis Cup partners were cheered on by the vociferous French crowd.
After battling it out for 6 hours and 35 minutes, Kevin Anderson managed to get the better of his American opponent, John Isner, with a score of 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (5-7), 6-7 (9-11), 6-4, 26-24. Interestingly, Isner has been a part of three of the longest Grand Slam singles matches ever. Since 1921, Anderson is the 1st South African to reach the Wimbledon decider.
An unbelievable 186 games were needed to decide the winner in this historic clash at the 2010 Wimbledon Open between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut. Designed to go 47-all, even the scoreboard malfunctioned when the two were still tied at 50-50. Out of the 11 hours and 5 minutes played, the 5th set itself ran for more than eight hours in this historic clash.
