Isner–Mahut match at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships
The Isner–Mahut match at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships is the longest tennis match in history. It was a first-round Men's singles match, in which the American 23rd seed John Isner played against French qualifier Nicolas Mahut. The match began at 6:13 pm (British Summer Time, or 17:13 UTC) on Tuesday, 22 June 2010, on Court 18 at Wimbledon. At 9:07 pm, due to the fading daylight, play was suspended before the start of the fifth set. After resuming on Wednesday, 23 June, at 2:05 pm, the record for longest match was broken at 5:45 pm. Play continued until the final set was tied at 59 games all, at which point the daylight faded again, and so play was suspended once more at 9:09 pm. Play resumed again at 3:40 pm on Thursday, 24 June, and eventually Isner won the match at 4:47 pm, the final set having lasted for 8 hours, 11 minutes.
| John Isner (23) vs. Nicolas Mahut (Q) | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | 22–24 June 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Tournament | Wimbledon | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | London | ||||||||||||||||||
| Chair umpire | Mohamed Lahyani | ||||||||||||||||||
| Duration | 11 hours 5 minutes | ||||||||||||||||||
| World rankings | John Isner: 19 Nicolas Mahut: 148 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Previous head-to-head results | |||||||||||||||||||
| Mahut 1–0 Isner | |||||||||||||||||||
| John Isner | |||||||||||||||||||
| Nicolas Mahut | |||||||||||||||||||
In total, the match took 11 hours, 5 minutes of play over three days, with a final score of 6–4, 3–6, 6–7(7–9), 7–6(7–3), 70–68 for a total of 183 games. It remains, by far, the longest match in tennis history in terms of both duration and number of games. The final set alone was longer than the previous longest match.
Both players broke numerous Wimbledon and tennis records, including each serving over 100 aces, with the match being referred to as "the endless match."
A rule change was instituted for the 2019 Championships, introducing a tie break when the score in the fifth set (third set for women's matches) reaches 12–12. A further rule change during 2022 trialed a 10-point tie break at 6-6 in the final set of all Grand Slam matches, meaning that under current rules, the Isner–Mahut match will likely remain the longest match in tennis history.