By Leigh Sanders
Every once in a while something happens in the world of sport which has you laughing to yourself, completely in disbelief about what is taking place before your very eyes.
Most weeks I find myself stood at Cardiff City Stadium wondering why I bother paying my hard earned money watching the tripe laid out on the pitch before me.
Tennis often throws out some great encounters. Two players matched stroke for stroke in a sheer battle of personas in a bid to lift a trophy and see the dollars rolling in to their account.
There was the now infamous Federer-Nadal Wimbledon final of 2008. Or how about Andy Roddick refusing to lay down and die until deep in to the fifth set in last year’s final? Goran Ivanisevic finally getting his hands on a Grand Slam?
A milestone was reached at Wimbledon
And that’s just recent Wimbledon encounters. Looking back through history there are so many match-ups I read about and think, I wish I had been there. As a 22-year-old I have been treated to many great match-ups in my rough decade of closely following tennis. And I look forward to many, many more over the next 60 (or knowing my luck, 10) years of my life.
But I think very few will quite stick in the memory like what I have witnessed over the past two days at SW19. You all know what I’m talking about. Yes, Isner-Mahut. It’s the match everybody’s talking about. The encounter which has had the tennis world totally transfixed for over ten hours. Ten hours!
Play finally drew to a close at roughly 9pm last night due to bad light and both men valiantly supported each other off the court, probably connected by the knowledge that their names would now forever be etched in to the history of the sport.
I’m sure that in ten years time, unless one of these guys goes on to lift a few Slams, the mention of one of their names will instantaneously bring up thoughts of the other. They will be connected like brothers over this.
Just look at the records they have broken. As well as the longest match in history, the fifth set alone is longer than the previous longest match set by Arnaud Clement and Fabrice Santoro at the 2004 French Open. The 163 games contested by the two guys is also a new record, beating the 112 set by Pancho Gonzalez and Charlie Pasarell in 1969. It has also overcome the previous longest fifth set from the 2003 Aussie Open where Andy Roddick finally overcame Younes El Aynaoui 21-19 in the quarterfinals.
Ivo Karlovic’s record of 78 aces in his Davis Cup quarterfinal against the Czech Republic. Both players have blitzed that. Mahut currently stands at 95, while Isner is the current record holder on 98. That Karlovic-Stepanek match also held the record for the most combined aces with 96, but now these two have served up 193.
Phew! That’s quite a lot of statistics to digest. And with play resuming on this Thursday afternoon they could all be set to change again. On the other hand of course, it could be over in two games. That would be quite ironic!
Imagine if Jimmy Van Alen had never been listened to with his idea for the set tiebreaks. Isner and Mahut might just about be starting the fourth set the rate they’ve been going.
Whoever triumphs here will face the Dutchman Thiemo De Bakker who needed a 16-14 fifth set to overcome the Columbian Santiago Giraldo. But he will feel like a fresh-born foal compared to whoever comes out of this. The fitness trainers of Isner and Mahut are really going to have to earn their corn to prepare their man for what will only be round two. I bet they feel like they’ve completed a whole tournament already.
Good luck to both of them. As Isner said leaving the court last night: “Nothing like this will ever happen again. Ever.” I don’t know John; I would have said that about this match two days ago!
