Bud Collins On The Historic John Isner Wimbledon Match Win

When Bud Collins was going through the updates and edits to his famed “Bud Collins History of Tennis” encyclopedia, he was confronted with the major updates that came with the infamous John Isner vs. Nicolas Mahut match at Wimbledon in 2010. The match is undoubtedly what people will most remember Isner for as he ends his professional playing career at the 2023 U.S. Open. Collins decided that in the “Records” section of the book that the match needed to have its own mini-section in the record book, which we present below.

John Isner’s 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(9-7), 7-6(7-3), 70-68 victory over Nicolas Mahut in the first round of Wimbledon in 2010 set the record for the longest ever tennis match in history in terms of number of games and duration. The match stretched over three days, beginning at 6:08 pm on Tuesday, June 22 and was suspended due to darkness overnight at 9:03 pm at two-sets all. The match was resumed at 2:07 pm with the start of the fifth set on Wednesday, June 23 and was suspended again due to darkness 9:10 pm with the score at 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (9-7), 7-6 (7-3), 59-59. The match again resumed at 3:42 pm on Thursday, June 24 and was completed at 4:48 pm.

The match lasted 11 hours, 5 minutes and totaled 183 games. The final set alone lasted 8 hours, 11 minutes. In comparison, the fewest games played through seven rounds to win a major singles title in the Open era (since 1968) in men’s singles title was 147, set by Guillermo Vilas at the 1977 US Open.

On Wednesday, Isner missed four match points in the fifth set, one at 10-9, two at 33-32, and one at 59-58. There were 168 consecutive service holds until the final game. The last previous break of serve had been in the second game of the second set when Isner was broken at 0-1. Mohamed Lahyani of Sweden was the chair umpire for the entire duration of the match and did not take a bathroom break during play.

Records broken during the epic include the following;

Longest match in time: 11 hours, 5 minutes

Previous record: 6 hours, 33 minutes, Fabrice Santoro def. Arnaud Clement, 6-4, 6-3,

6-7 (5), 3-6, 16-14, 2004 French Open first round

Longest match by games: 183

Previous record in singles: 126 games, Roger Taylor def. Wieslaw Gasiorek 27-29,

31-29, 6-4, King’s Cup, Warsaw, 1966

Previous record in doubles: 147 games, Dick Leach and Dick Dell def. Len Schloss

and Tom Mozur, 3-6, 49-47, 22-20, Newport Invitational second round, 1967

Longest set in time: 8:11

Longest set by games: 138

Previous record: 96 games, Dick Leach and Dick Dell def. Len Schloss and Tom Mozur,