Unlike most sports, tennis is not time limited. Instead, the match ends when one of the athletes wins in a certain number of sets. Given this rule, the sport provided the possibility that certain oddities would occur in it. Most matches are over in about two hours. Some even stretch for three hours. However, be it a doubles or singles match, sometimes the final score cannot be established within a reasonable time frame. It doesn't matter if the match is between men or women. The matches on this list are the 10 longest-running tennis matches in history. Athletes on this list must have an inhuman level of endurance. Simply put, no ordinary person could have endured any of these matches. These matches are actually very unusual.

10. Novak Djokovic defeated Rafael Nadal in 2012 (match lasted 5 hours 53 minutes)

In modern tennis, two people have climbed to the very top of the rankings. One of them is a furious left-hander who is the King of the Clay, and the other is a man who competed with himself as often as with his opponents on the court. In 2012, these wars fought in an epic match that will forever remain in the memory of tennis fans. In 2012, in the Australian Open Final, Djokovic faced a hardened opponent - Rafael Nadal. The duel reached a tie-break in the fourth set (Nadal was leading 2-1 at the time), and many wondered if Novak could do something against his opponent. Oh, how did he come back to the game. He won the tie-break in the fourth set, after which he won the fifth set 7-5. The match lasted 5 hours and 53 minutes, and an exhausted Djokovic fell to the court with joy when it was over.

9. Radek Stepanek defeated Ivo Karlovic in 2009 (match lasted 5 hours 59 minutes)

Most of the matches on this list took place in the Davis Cup. This is the first of many of these matches, in which the absurd Czech Stepanek held out longer than Croat Ivo Karlovic in a battle that just fell short of 6 o'clock. Radek and Ivo both fought for a spot in the 2009 Davis Cup final, and neither of them wanted to back down. This match is unique in the number of tie-breaks played by the athletes (all four sets ended with a tie-break). The fifth and final set ended with a double-digit score. As a result, Stepanek fought off Karlovic's strong serve and won the fifth set with a score of 16-14.

8. Horst Skoff defeated Mats Wilander in 1989 (match lasted 6 hours 4 minutes)


In the first match of this list, which lasted more than six hours, Skoff and Wilander met in the 1989 Davis Cup quarterfinals. After the first two sets ended in a tie-break (each athlete won one set), the third set was simply shocking. Skoff lost the set 6-1. It seemed that Wilander was about to crush Horst. However, Skoff managed to recoup and win in the fourth set with a score of 6-4. When match time approached 6 o'clock, the tennis players fought until Skoff beat Wilander two times in a row, allowing him to win 9-7 in the fifth set. Despite the fact that Mats lost in a long and difficult match that lasted just over 6 hours, his team (Sweden) made it to the Davis Cup final. In the final, they lost 3-2 to the Federal Republic of Germany.

7. Lucas Arnold Ker, David Nalbandian defeated Evgeny Kafelnikov and Marat Safin in 2002 (match lasted 6 hours 20 minutes)


In the first doubles match on this list, Argentine partners Ker and Nalbandian defeated the Russians, Kafelnikov and Safin, in a match that lasted much longer than anyone expected. In the 2002 Davis Cup semi-finals, both teams fought for a spot in the final. Ker and Nalbandian won the first two sets, and it seemed that the Russians would not win even one set. However, they were able to squeeze out victory in the third set (7-5) and even beat the Argentines quite solidly in the fourth set (6-4). Considering the match duration of 6 hours and 20 minutes, you would think that the fifth set should have been an incredible number of games. And so it was. In total, it took 36 games in the fifth set for the Argentines to win the match.

6. Boris Becker defeated John McEnroe in 1987 (match lasted 6 hours and 21 minutes)


Although the match lasted only a minute longer than the previous doubles match, the 1987 Davis Cup encounter between Becker and McEnroe will never be forgotten. From any match between these two players, fans could expect a fierce fight and the best tennis they've ever seen. On this particular occasion, with the reputation of their countries at stake, Boris and John entered an intense, bitter struggle to win. After McEnroe won the first set 6-4, no one expected a long second set. Boris won the second set, winning 15 games to 13 games. Each athlete won one set before the final set began, in which Becker won a convincing 6-2 victory.

5. John McEnroe defeated Mats Wilander in 1982 (match lasted 6 hours 22 minutes)

Despite the fact that both athletes have met on this list in the previous paragraphs, this was the first match for each of the athletes, lasting more than six hours. Beating the previous match by just one minute, John McEnroe defeated Wilander in five grueling sets in this match. The third set of this match, again played in the Davis Cup (this time in 1982), was the forerunner of absurdly long tennis matches. Wilander defeated John in the third set 17-15. However, the incredibly tough McEnroe did not remain defeated and eventually even won the match, taking the fifth set with a score of 8-6.

4. Vicki Nelson defeated Jean Hepner in 1984 (match lasted 6 hours 31 minutes)


This is the only match on this list that has taken place between two women, and it is a very impressive achievement. Why? If you are familiar with the rules of tennis, then you know that matches between men are played according to the scenario "best of five sets" (during Grand Slam tournaments and several others), while women's matches are played only in the format "best of three. sets ". Considering that this match lasted only three sets, you can guess how hard and determined these two athletes played at any point in the match. Both athletes were originally from America and the match for who makes it to the second round of the Central Fidelity Banks International was very similar to a tug of war with varying success. Nelson ended up defeating Hepner in the third set, 11-9.

3. Fabrice Santoro defeated Arnaud Clement in 2004 (6 hours 33 minutes)


In one of the few matches of this list that did not pass in the Davis Cup, two representatives of France met. The prize was the 2004 French Cup, but only one of them would have made it past the first round. After Santoro won the first two sets, the prospects for the tournament looked very bleak for Clement, but he managed to avoid defeat by winning the third set in a tie-break. After he unexpectedly easily won the fourth set 6-3, only one set had to decide the fate of the match. In fact, the match lasted so long that the last set ended only the next day. Santoro was able to fight back and won the fifth set with a score of 16-14.

2. Tomas Berdych, Lukas Rosol defeated Stanislas Wawrinka, Marco Chiudinelli in 2013 (match lasted 7 hours 2 minutes)


The second doubles match on this list is also the first match to exceed seven hours. The 2013 Davis Cup first round match featured two athletes who recently made it into the top ten tennis players (Berdych and Wawrinka). Both teams, fighting to get the championship in their country, have shown astonishing efforts on the court. All sets ended very close (the only set that had a comparative advantage in one direction ended 6-4), and the fans had a lot of fun watching the match. After the hands of the clock crossed the seven o'clock mark, Berdykh and Rosol converted a match point. They won the fifth set 24-22 after an epic battle lasting seven hours.

1. John Isner defeated Nicolas Mayu in 2010 (the match lasted 11 hours 5 minutes)


This match, perhaps, will remain unsurpassed forever. The match during the first round of the 2010 Wimbledon tournament even later received a memorial plaque with information about the three-day battle. It was the perfect combination. Isner, with his heavy sweeping feed and Mayut's fast style, made them diametrically opposed. The weakness of each turned out to be the advantage of the other. After the match had been going on for two days, it was no longer just tennis fans who watched it. Everyone gave up what they were doing to see if the match would ever end. After three days of Grand Slam tennis, Isner fell to the ground. All the energy of his body was spent. He won the longest tennis match of all time, 70-68 in the fifth set. This match will be written in textbooks and will never be forgotten. What did you do when Isner defeated Mayu?

Longest tennis match? and got the best answer

Answer from Ўriy Teterin [newbie]
In the first round of Wimbledon, the 19th racket of the world, American John Isner, played against the 148th racket of the world, Frenchman Nicolas Maya.
The match began on Tuesday, June 22nd. The players played 4 sets, but then it got dark and the sequel was postponed to Wednesday.
On Wednesday, June 23, the opponents finished the game to 59:59 in the fifth game and again the match was postponed due to darkness.
And yesterday, Thursday, John Isner still won 70:68.
The total score for the sets was as follows: 6: 4, 3: 6, 6: 7 (7: 9), 7: 6 (7: 3), 70:68.
The guys broke almost all records in tennis.
For example, by the number of games in one set and match or by the number of innings right through - Isner played 112.
But one record survived. Record for longest continuous play.
In 1984, the rivals exchanged 643 shots in a row for 29 minutes, until one of them was able to hit the ball.

Answer from Omario[guru]
The 2010 Wimbledon men's singles first round match between John Isner and Nicolas Mayu, which lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes, became the longest match in the history of world tennis. Along the way, the game broke several more records, including records for the number of games and aces played.

Answer from Ѓlyana Iskenderova[newbie]
11 hours 5 minutes ... cool!)

Answer from Neizvestnaya[guru]
The amateur match between Brian and Steve Seibel lasted 8 hours 15 minutes 1s in Phoenix (USA) on August 14, 2004. The record in the official championships was set by the Spaniards Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco at the Australian Open in 2009. In the semifinals of the tournament, they fought for 5 hours 14 minutes. The match was won by Nadal.

Answer from Timur Sultangaliyev[guru]

11 hours 5 mins

Answer from Maria Erusheva[guru]
Last year's Wimbledon, Isner - Mayu.

The Grand Slam tournaments and Davis Cup matches are the perfect place to join the list of record-long bouts in the history of tennis, as nowadays only here the format of five-set fights has been preserved.

It is interesting that it was the Davis Cup, the importance of which is regarded by many leading tennis players as much lower than the “majors”, that gave the most lengthy matches, most often testifying to the incredible intensity of the struggle.

Of the ten longest bouts of men's tennis in the history of the Open Era, six represent the Davis Cup, and most of them have played against outstanding athletes who have enriched the history of the game not only with these results.

5 hours 41 minutes. Paul-Henri Mathieu - John Isner. Roland Garros -2012, second round - 6/7 (2), 6/4, 6/4, 3/6, 18/16

John Isner is regularly featured in the Longest Matches category. Taking the American giant's serve is problematic even for the Big Four players, let alone the rest of the tennis players. However, when John comes across an opponent who also categorically does not want to give up his games, a stalemate is created.

In the match with Paul-Henri Mathieu at last year's “Roland Garros”, the American looked like a favorite, but in the fifth game, the Frenchman, to the applause of his native audience, stood up literally tightly. In the end, the war of nerves ended with Isner faltering. This match is currently the second longest in the history of the French Open.

5 hours 45 minutes. Mehdi Tahiri - Gilles Muller. Davis Cup 2005, First group - 6/7 (4), 6/4, 7/6 (3), 6/7 (5), 6/4

The national teams of Morocco and Luxembourg lost their opening matches, so no one wanted to leave the First group. The fierce battle between the Moroccans who had lost their former splendor and the Luxembourgers who never shone was marked by a stubborn and tough confrontation between Mehdi Tahiri and Gilles Muller.

The Moroccan veteran, who has defended the national team colors since 1993, resisted desperately and was able to achieve victory. However, this did not help his team - Luxembourg won and retained a place in the First group of the Davis Cup.

5 hours 46 minutes. Arnaud Clement - Marc Rosset. 2001 Davis Cup Quarterfinals - 6/3, 3/6, 7/6 (5), 6/7 (6), 15/13

Arnaud Clement is another regular at such matches. In 2001, the French national team was heading for their ninth victory in the Davis Cup, but the Swiss, the young Roger Federer and the experienced Marc Rosset, unexpectedly stood in their way.

It was he, the Olympic champion of Barcelona, ​​who twice compared the score in the opening match of the match against Clement, and in the fifth game he resisted for twenty-eight games. Clement snatched the victory, but the outcome of the match was decided only in the fifth fight, to which the physically exhausted Rosset could no longer get out. Georg Bastel lost to Nicolas Escuda in five sets, and the French national team proceeded to the semifinals.

5 hours 53 minutes. Novak Djokovic - Rafael Nadal. 2012 Australian Open, final - 5/7, 6/4, 6/2, 6/7 (5), 7/5

But all the fans remember this match very well. And not only because it took place just over a year ago. "Hot on the heels" some experts suggested recognizing the fight as the best in tennis history, but even the most notorious skeptics would agree that it is in the top ten without any questions.

Both great tennis players showed here all the best they could, giving all the best during each rally. Rafael Nadal did not manage to free himself from the “Djokovic complex” in Melbourne, but it was here that he took the first step towards this.

5 hours 59 minutes. Radek Stepanek - Ivo Karlovich. 2009 Davis Cup semi-finals - 6/7 (5), 7/6 (5), 7/6 (6), 6/7 (2), 16/14

When Ivo Karlovic is serving, and there is a strong tennis player in the opponents, this means that each set is likely to end in a tie-break. This is exactly what happened in the opening match of the 2009 Davis Cup semifinals. The problem for Ivo was that Radek Stepanek's serve also went well ...

As a result, four games invariably ended in tie-breaks, and according to the results of the marathon fifth set, the more experienced and consistent Stepanek turned out to be stronger. When in the second match Tomas Berdych also defeated Marina Cilic in five games, almost everything in this semi-final became clear.

6 hours 4 minutes. Horst Skoff - Mats Wilander. 1989 Davis Cup Quarterfinals - 6/7 (5), 7/6 (7), 1/6, 6/4, 9/7

The Swedish national team, along with the FRG team, were one of the main favorites of the Davis Cup in the eighties. However, the rival in the quarterfinals to the Swedes was quite tough. The Austrian team, led by the young Thomas Muster, defeated the Australians in the first round, and had to seriously compete with the favorites on Viennese clay.

However, a few days before the match with the Swedes, Muster was hit by a car in Key Biscayne, as a result of which he tore two knee ligaments at once. But even without their leader, the Austrians fought desperately. 21-year-old Horst Skoff played twice in a match with the former first racket of the world, and in the decisive set he was able to make such an important break. Nevertheless, the victory in the match went to the Swedes, who lost to the FRG national team in the final of the tournament.

The life of one of the heroes of this match did not really work out. Horst won four ATP tournaments, but was forced to retire in 1995. In 2008, at the age of thirty-nine, Horst Skoff died of a heart attack.

6 hours 21 minutes. Boris Becker - John McEnroe. 1987 Davis Cup, World Group playoffs - 4/6, 15/13, 8/10, 6/2, 6/2

It is hard to imagine, but in 1987 the teams of Germany and the USA met in the playoffs of the World Group, having suffered defeat already in the first round of the draw. Not wanting to leave the elite, the captains of the teams pulled up their best forces for the decisive battle - the young Boris Becker and the aging, but still formidable John McEnroe.

At that time, there were no tie-breaks in the Davis Cup yet, so the main events unfolded in the second and third sets, one of which went to Boris and the other to John. However, the two marathon games so exhausted the great American that after that he only occasionally offered worthy resistance. Becker won, and with him the German national team, sending the US team to the hardest "knockout".

6 hours 22 minutes. John McEnroe - Mats Wilander. 1982 Davis Cup Quarterfinals - 9/7, 6/2, 15/17, 3/6, 8/6

Well, five years before that, McEnroe was in his prime and at the zenith of fame. All that he could, “Junior” in the quarterfinal match against the team of Sweden did, but failed partners - Eliot Teltscher and Brian Gottfried. As a result, McEnroe's second single fight, against Mats Wilander, turned out to be decisive.

McEnroe took the first two sets in the fight, but in the third game the young Swede flatly refused to lose. Mats took literally all the balls, and as a result of the titanic struggle, he celebrated the victory in the game - 17/15. Inspired Wilander equalized the score in the match - 2: 2, and resisted for a long time in the fifth set, until McEnroe remembered that he was, after all, the first racket of the world.

In the future, the Americans did not have any problems with winning the Davis Cup - 5: 0 with the Australians and 4: 1 with the French in the final. But the duel between McEnroe and Wilander became the longest in the history of the Davis Cup.

6 hours 33 minutes. Fabrice Santoro - Arnaud Clement. Roland Garros -2004, first round - 6/4, 6/3, 6/7 (5), 3/6, 16/14

The last "Roland Garros" of the "Donadale" era turned out to be extremely interesting. In particular, two outstanding Frenchmen also delighted the fans. Santoro and Clement held out their match until nightfall, with the result that the fight had to be postponed to the second day.

But even after the resumption of the game, the two gallant Frenchmen fought so dashingly that in the end they set the record for the length of matches in the history of Roland Garros, as well as the absolute record of the Open era. Who could have known that this achievement was destined to last only six years?

11 hours 5 minutes. John Isner - Nicolas Mayu. Wimbledon 2010, first round. 6/4, 3/6, 6/7 (7), 7/6 (3), 70/68

This fight will forever remain in the history of tennis. Three days, one hundred and eighty-three games, two hundred and sixteen aces, nine absolute game records. It is unlikely that a duel like this will ever take place. Although, do not swear. After the match between Santoro and Clement in 2004, something similar sounded too.

By the way, an interesting fact - Serena Williams took a total of just under ten hours to win the championship title at Wimbledon 2010 in seven matches - that is, less than this titanic first-round match lasted.

However, do not underestimate women's tennis, because the longest match here lasted 6 hours and 31 minutes - and that's for two sets! In 1984, at the WTA tournament in Richmond, American Vicky Nelson defeated her compatriot Jean Hepner with a score of 6/4, 7/6 (9).

This match also set two absolute tennis records. Firstly, the longest rally in the history of tennis was recorded here - 643 hits in twenty-nine minutes. Secondly, this is the longest meeting in history - of those that were played over the course of one day. After all, Clement and Santoro, and even more so Mayu and Isner, did not meet in one day.

So women tennis players also have something to brag about. However, in the total mass of five-set matches, men have much more chances to set an outstanding record. I wonder how the 2013 season will please the fans in this area?

After the tournament in Miami, Bernard Tomic from Australia and Finn Yarko Nieminen played the shortest match - a duel in which the representative of Finland won 6: 0, 6: 1, lasted only 28 minutes and 20 seconds - the tennis community remembered the craziest records on the court. The German newspaper Bild cited 11 such unusual achievements.

1. The longest match in Grand Slam history took place at Wimbledon in 2010. French Nicolas Mayu and American John Isner, fighting in the first round, spent 11 hours and 5 minutes on the court. At the same time, the duel was interrupted twice due to the onset of darkness. As a result, Isner won - 6: 4, 3: 6, 6: 7, 7: 6, 70:68! For women, a similar record was set by Italian Francesca Schiavone and Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova. In the one-eighth finals of the 2011 Australian Open, they played 4 hours 44 minutes. The Italian won with a score of 6: 4, 1: 6, 16:14.

2. German Steffi Graf on June 4, 1988 in the final of Roland Garros won against 17-year-old Natalia Zvereva, representing the USSR, in just 32 minutes - 6: 0, 6: 0.

3. The longest final in the Grand Slam series was the final masts in the men's singles at the 2012 Australian Open. The meeting lasted 5 hours 53 minutes and ended with the victory of the Serb Novak Djokovic over the Spaniard Rafael Nadal - 5: 7, 6: 4, 6: 2, 6: 7, 7: 5.

4. The largest number of innings through was recorded in the longest match - between American Isner and Frenchman Mayu in the first round of Wimbledon-2010. John Isner made 112 aces, while Nicolas Mayu - 103. Both exceeded the achievement of Croatian Ivo Karlovic - on his account 78 innings through in one match.

5. Croatian Goran Ivanisevic has the most aces for the season: in 1996 he filed 1477 times. Such statistics have been conducted since 1991. More than a thousand aces, in addition, belong to another Croat - Ivo Karlovic (1318 in 2007) and the American Andy Roddick (1017 in 2004).

6. The longest exchange of blows was recorded on March 12, 1988. Tennis players R. Kapp and V. Duggan in the match, which took place in Santa Barbara, kept the ball in play for 3 hours and 33 minutes. The ball flew over the net 6202 times. The longest hitting exchange among women was the rally between Vicky Nelson and Gene Hepner in October 1984 in Richmond. For 29 minutes, the tennis players threw the ball over the net - they exchanged blows 643 times. In total, the fight lasted 6 hours and 22 minutes, while only the tie-break lasted 1 hour and 47 minutes.

7. With the highest speed of the ball, Croat Ivo Karlovic served again - 251 km per hour. The tennis player succeeded on March 5, 2011 in the 2011 Davis Cup doubles match in Zagreb, in which the Croats met with the Germans. However, the unofficial record belongs to the Australian Samuel Groth - on May 9, 2012, the ball he sent at the Challenger Series in South Korea reached a speed of 263 km per hour. Among tennis ladies, the official record for serving speed belongs to Williams' older sister Venus. She sent the ball at 207.6 km per hour, which was recorded at the 2007 US Open. The unofficial achievement of the same American woman is 209 km per hour (in Zurich-2008 and Tokyo-2013). Dutchwoman Brenda Schultz filed just as quickly in 2006 in Cincinnati. Among the "unrecognized" records - service performed by German Sabina Lisicki in the competition in Bali. The representative of Germany performed the "service" at a speed of 210 km per hour, however, due to a technical error in the device measuring the feed rate, the record was not recorded.

8. The largest number of double faults in one match was committed by Russian Anna Kournikova (now Kournikova has dual citizenship - Russian and American - ed.). Anna set an anti-record in the second round of the 1999 Australian Open against Japanese Mio Saeki. Kournikova made 31 double mistakes, but won - 1: 6, 6: 4, 10: 8.

9. Swiss Roger Federer has won 24 finals in a row at the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tournaments. After losing the final in 2003 in Gstaad to Czech Jiri Novak, Federer was not defeated in the final matches until the final ATP championship in 2005. Then he lost to the Argentinean David Nalbandian.

10. The best balance - the ratio of wins and losses - was established by the American of Czech origin Martina Navratilova in 1983 - 86: 1. She lost only to Katie Horvat (USA), then the 33rd racket of the world, with a score of 4: 6, 6: 0, 3: 6 in the fourth round of Roland Garros. For men, a similar achievement was won by the American John McEnroe in 1984 - 82: 3.

11. The highest number of spectators at the Grand Slam tournament was in Melbourne Park at the Australian Open - on January 22, 2005, the competition was attended by 60 thousand 669 people.

Contract or Struggle?

On June 24, 2010, the longest match in tennis history took place at Wimbledon. The authors of the record were two inconspicuous tennis players of the second echelon - John Eisner (USA) and Nicolas Mayu (France). The longest tennis match lasted as much as 11 hours and 5 minutes. Thus, the previous record fell by almost two times.

Evil tongues say that the match was negotiated and that its participants simply found a way to get into history. On the other hand, eyewitnesses of the confrontation instruct that everything took place in a stubborn and exhausting struggle that cannot be played out.

Results of the match

The longest tennis match ended with a 70:68 basketball score in favor of American John Eisner at the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament on Thursday 24 June 2010. To the public's relief, the fifth set of the longest match in the history of the sport is over.

Eisner's amazing duel with Frenchman Nicolas Mayu lasted a total of 11 hours and 5 minutes. The final score is 6: 4, 3: 6, 6: 7 (7: 9), 7: 6 (7: 3), 70:68 in favor of the American. From now on, he also holds the record for the number of aces in one match - 112.

Together, the tennis players in this match filed through 215 times. In the fifth set, where to win it was necessary to break away from the opponent by two points, they took turns taking their serves. According to Eisner, who ended up in the second round of Wimbledon, "this will never happen again."

Previous records

The title of the longest match in the history of professional tennis to this day was held by the duel between Frenchmen Fabrice Santoro and Arnaud Clement, who "butted" in 2004 on the slowest clay surface of Roland Garros for 6 hours 33 minutes. Wimbledon's record was 6 hours 9 minutes.

The world record for the number of aces was previously held by Croat Ivo Karlovic - 78 innings through the 2009 Davis Cup Croatia - Czech Republic.

The meeting was suspended for the first time on Tuesday before serving the American in the decider. However, on Wednesday, the tennis players were unable to determine the strongest in their confrontation, the referees separated them when the score was 59:59 in the decisive game.

Perhaps the participants in this unusual marathon simply wanted to write their names in the history of tennis in this way forever. How else to explain the fact that during yesterday none of them could break away from the opponent by two points. Although, according to eyewitnesses, just before the suspension of the match on Wednesday, tennis players did everything possible to bring it to a victorious end. At the same time, the fans chanted without stopping: "We want more, we want more!"

The match took place on the 18th court of the All England Lawn Tennis Club, which is why the game was not broadcast on the leading sports TV channels. However, one of the brightest masters in tennis history, John McEnroe, called it "the sport's most outstanding advertisement."