When Britain’s Andy Murray took two days this weekend to beat Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 12-10 at the French Open, I was reminded of the tennis marathon of the century.
American John Isner took three days to defeat French qualifier Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon in 2010.
The result was 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68.
The match of 183 games took a total of 11 hours and 5 minutes over three days, from 22 to 24 June, to complete. The fifth set alone lasted 8 hours, 11 minutes.
Picking up at 59-59 in the fifth set on the third day, the match continued on serve with no break points until the American hit a backhand past the Frenchman in the 138th game of the set to finish the contest in front of a packed audience.
This mega-marathon is now referred to as ‘the endless match’. 216 aces were hit, Isner with 113 and Mahut 103. All three broke existing records.
Afterwards, Isner, Mahut and the umpire were presented with crystal bowls and champagne flutes.
Tennis marathons were more common before tie-breakers were introduced in all sets but the final one. Although frustrating for tournament organisers, the prolonged ‘endless’ sets had a certain aura.
One of the biggest cliffhangers was played in Los Angeles in May 1949, when Ted Schroeder and Richard Falkenberg defeated the colourful Pancho Gonzales and H. Stewart 36-34, 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 19-17 in the South California Championships final. The see-saw tussle between the Americans lasted 4 hours and 45 minutes as 135 games were hotly contested.
A world record? Not quite.
Richard Leach and Richard Dell overcame fellow Americans Tom Mozur and Lenny Schloss 3-6, 49-47, 22-20 at Newport, Rhode Island on 18 and 19 August, 1967. That means 147 games, not exactly a landslide victory! The 96-game second set was the longest on record in senior tennis, according to Lance Tingay in The Guinness Book of Facts and Feats.
Of course that was until Isner and Mahut’s titanic final set in 2010.
Another marathon to remember was a singles match between Roger Taylor (Great Britain) and Wieslaw Gasiorek (Poland). In a King’s Cup tie at Warsaw, Poland, on 5 November 1966, Taylor won 27-29, 31-29, 6-4 after four and half hours and 126 games.
Another marathon lasted 6 hours and 23 minutes for completion. This was in the US Indoor Championships at Salisbury, Maryland on 16 February, 1968. Mark Cox and Bobby Wilson (GB) defeated Charles Pasarell and Bob Holmberg (USA) 26-24, 17-19, 30-28, a mere 144 games!
In Davis Cup doubles, 95 games were played in the quarter final in Birmingham, UK in 1969 when Wilhelm Bungert and Christian Kuhnke (Germany) beat Mark Cox and Peter Curtis (GB) 10-8, 17-19, 13-11, 3-6, 6-2.
Closer to home, a marathon to remember was played at Manly, NSW in the Greater Pacific Championships in December, 1974. Weary rivals Trevor Sargent and Vic Eke struggled for four and a half hours before Sargent took the final set 27-25. This set had to be halted at 14-all under failing light on 27 December at 8.05 pm and was continued the next day.
“After this match, Sargent went off to sleep on Manly Beach and Eke composed himself for a doubles match that was to follow,” wrote Phillip Christensen in next day’s Sun Herald.
According to Tingay, the longest rally was played on 13 November, 1977, between two 11-year-old girls, Cari Hagey and Collette Kavanagh from La Jolla, California in the Anaheim Junior Championships, California. The opening point of the second set lasted five and a half minutes! It was estimated that the ball crossed the net 1030 times. The second set of 6-4 lasted 3 hours and 35 minutes. Crikey!
One of the most arduous matches at Wimbledon was between Jaroslav Drobny (Czechoslovakia) and Budge Patty (USA) on 25 June, 1953. Lance Tingay describes it in Match Point: “It was a clash of artists with Drobny the worker in oils against Patty, the more delicate water colourist.”
The 22nd game of the final set was the 93rd of the match, as Drobny won 8-6, 16-18, 3-6, 8-6, 12-10. Drobny had won 47 games to Patty’s 46, although he won three fewer points than the loser, 301 to 304.
They all but dropped with exhaustion. So did the 15,000 spectators, their nerves shattered, their necks cricked. The Wimbledon Committee presented a gold case to both players in recognition.
Drobny and Patty were engaged in another fantastic duel, although not at Wimbledon. The battle was fought at Lyons Indoor final in France in 1955. They played 100 games for three and a half hours and the result was inconclusive at 21-19, 8-10, 21-all. The title was shared.
Patty could well be titled the Maharajah of tennis marathons. With Tony Trabert (USA) as his partner he had defeated Australia’s legendary Frank Sedgman and Ken McGregor 6-4, 31-29, 7-9, 6-2 in the Wimbledon doubles of 1950. That’s 94 games.
This Wimbledon record was lowered in 1966 when Eugene Scott (USA) and Nikki Pilic (Yugoslavia) edged past Cliff Richey (USA) and Torben Ulrich (Denmark) after 98 games (19-21, 12-10, 6-4, 4-6, 9-7) in the first round of Wimbledon doubles.
According to experts, one of the classic clashes was between the ageless and legendary Pancho Gonzales and Charles Pasarell, 16 years Gonzales’ junior, in the first round of Wimbledon 1969.
The match between the Americans commenced on 24 June, almost 16 years to the day after the Drobny-Patty clash.
Wrote Tennis 1970: “The first set lasted 46 games and Pasarell won it 24-22. Already the two had equalled the longest set in singles in Wimbledon. It was nearly dusk and electric lights on the scoreboard stood out brightly in the gloom.”
The light was fading fast and Gonzales, 41, pleaded that the match be stopped that night. But the referee refused. Gonzales was furious and gave vent to his emotions. Ultimately he had his wish, but by then Pasarell had won the second set 6-1 to lead 2-0. Gonzales stormed off the court to derisive boos.
The next day witnessed tennis at its magnificent best. In a sensational comeback, Gonzales took the third set 16-14 and the fourth 6-3 to make it 2-all. The decisive final set was a spine-chiller and Gonzales triumphed 11-9, but not before he had served seven match points.
The match had lasted five hours and 12 minutes and spanned 112 games, the most in any Wimbledon event until 2010.
The introduction of tie-breakers has reduced the incidence of marathons. Should tie-breakers be also introduced in the final set to avoid prolonged matches and ever-lasting tension or boredom?
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