The Longest Tennis Match Lasted 11 Hours 5 Minutes—But the Record Needs Context

The longest professional tennis match on record was John Isner’s victory over Nicolas Mahut in the first round of Wimbledon in 2010. It lasted 11 hours 5 minutes across three days, ending 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(7), 7-6(3), 70-68.

That is the headline record, but “longest match” can also mean the women’s record, the longest doubles match, the longest final or the record at a particular Grand Slam. Duration also needs scoring-rule context: Isner–Mahut was played under a format that allowed the deciding set to continue without a tiebreak.

The main records by time on court

Wimbledon says Isner–Mahut remains the longest match in the sport’s history (Wimbledon). The seven-hour Davis Cup doubles record and the principal singles records are also collected in an Olympics.com review. The WTA’s Open Era list places Nelson-Dunbar–Hepner first and Schiavone–Kuznetsova second among women’s matches (WTA).

These are playing times, not the elapsed time from the first ball to the last across suspensions. Isner–Mahut occupied parts of three calendar days because darkness stopped play twice.

Why Isner–Mahut reached 11 hours

The deciding set explains most of the record. It lasted 8 hours 11 minutes and contained 138 games—longer by itself than every other complete match in the table. The full match contained 183 games.

The score also shows what drove the duration. Isner and Mahut repeatedly held serve, but the advantage-set format required one player to lead by two games. There was no deciding-set tiebreak at 6-6, so 12-12, 30-30 and eventually 68-68 were merely intermediate scores. The match’s fifth-set duration and the repeated service holds are documented in the Olympics.com match account.

This is why match duration is not a clean measure of rally intensity or physical superiority. Powerful serving and few breaks can extend an advantage set even when many points are short. Conversely, an ordinary-looking score can conceal exceptionally long rallies.

The women’s record is the clearest contrast. Nelson-Dunbar beat Hepner in only two sets, yet the match lasted 6 hours 31 minutes. Schiavone–Kuznetsova, at 4:44, remains the longest women’s match at the Australian Open; its deciding set alone lasted three hours (Australian Open).

Longest men’s match at each Grand Slam

The four tournament records underline how much event rules and eras affect the comparison:

• Wimbledon: Isner def. Mahut, 2010 first round — 11:05.
• Roland-Garros: Fabrice Santoro def. Arnaud Clément, 2004 first round — 6:33. Roland-Garros identifies it as the tournament’s longest match (Roland-Garros).
• Australian Open: Djokovic def. Nadal, 2012 final — 5:53, the longest Grand Slam final of the Open Era (Australian Open).
• US Open: Daniel Evans def. Karen Khachanov, 2024 first round — 5:35. Evans won 6-7(8), 7-6(2), 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-4, surpassing the previous US Open record by nine minutes (US Open).

Why the 11-hour record is now exceptionally difficult to break

Beginning with the 2022 Roland-Garros, the four Grand Slams adopted the same deciding-set procedure: at 6-6, the players contest a 10-point tiebreak that must be won by two points (Grand Slam Board announcement).

A tiebreak can itself run well beyond 10 points, and ordinary games can repeatedly reach deuce, so the format does not impose a fixed maximum match duration. It does, however, remove the potentially unlimited sequence of full service games that produced 70-68 at Wimbledon and 16-14 in the Schiavone–Kuznetsova Australian Open match.

The practical reading is therefore: Isner–Mahut is the 11:05 benchmark, produced by dominant serving and an advantage final set under rules the majors no longer use. It is a genuine endurance record, but also a product of format and era—not a number that should be compared with modern matches without that context.