26 Jun 2010

Isner wins longest tennis match ever

10:06 am on 26 June 2010

The world's longest tennis match finally ended at Wimbledon with John Isner claiming the fifth set of a three-day epic against Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 70-68 after 11 hours and five minutes on court.

The American 23rd seed ended the first round contest with a backhand passing shot after another hour of play on Court 18.

The match had resumed at 59 games all in the deciding set after it was stopped by bad light on Thursday.

Isner says he's a little bit tired, however when you play a match like this with an atmosphere like this you don't feel tired, adding the crowd was fantastic.

The previous longest match was the six hour, 33 minute epic between Fabrice Santoro and Arnaud Clement at the 2004 French Open.