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The Longest Wimbledon Match Lasted 11 Hours and 5 Minutes
John Isner beat Nicolas Mahut 70–68 in the fifth set after 11 hours and five minutes. See how serving and the old scoring rules created the record.
The longest Wimbledon match was John Isner’s first-round victory over Nicolas Mahut in 2010. It lasted 11 hours and five minutes of playing time, spread across three days on Court 18.
Isner won 6–4, 3–6, 6–7 (7–9), 7–6 (7–3), 70–68. Wimbledon identifies it not only as its longest match, but as the longest tennis match anywhere.
| Record detail | Isner vs Mahut |
|---|---|
| Tournament and round | 2010 Wimbledon, first round |
| Dates | June 22–24, 2010 |
| Playing time | 11 hours, 5 minutes |
| Total games | 183 |
| Fifth-set score | 70–68 |
| Fifth-set duration | 8 hours, 11 minutes |
| Aces | Isner 113, Mahut 103 |
Why the match took three days
Play began at 6:13 p.m. on Tuesday, June 22. The players completed four sets before fading light stopped the match. They returned Wednesday and played the deciding set to 59–59, when darkness forced another suspension. On Thursday, Isner held serve to lead 69–68 and then broke Mahut in the 138th game of the set to finish the match.
The calendar span can make the record sound longer than it was. Eleven hours and five minutes is the accumulated playing time, excluding the overnight suspensions. From the first ball to the last, the contest occupied parts of three separate days. Reuters records a 6:13 p.m. Tuesday start and a 4:48 p.m. Thursday finish.
The fifth set created most of the record
The first four sets took a combined two hours and 54 minutes. The fifth set alone lasted eight hours and 11 minutes, accounting for about 74% of the match’s playing time.
That deciding set contained 138 games. With no final-set tiebreak under the rules then in force, one player had to lead by two games. Neither could establish that margin until the final game.
The serving numbers help explain the stalemate:
- Isner hit 113 aces.
- Mahut hit 103 aces.
- Their combined total was 216.
- The match contained 183 games.
Those are volume records rather than clean measures of serve quality. Dividing aces by games would mix the players’ service opportunities and ignore how many points each served. A proper ace rate uses service points as its denominator, as explained in career aces versus ace rate. Here, the totals mainly show how an exceptionally long match and reliable serving reinforced each other.
How far ahead is the record?
The clearest Wimbledon comparison is another match involving Isner. In the 2018 men’s semi-final, Kevin Anderson defeated him 7–6, 6–7, 6–7, 6–4, 26–24 in six hours and 36 minutes. The match statistics record 49 aces for Anderson and 53 for Isner, with 297 points won by Anderson and 271 by Isner—102 aces and 568 points combined.
Even that match finished four hours and 29 minutes sooner than Isner–Mahut. It demonstrates the same structural issue: an advantage final set could continue indefinitely while the players kept holding serve.
For records across other tours, events and match formats, see the broader guide to the longest tennis matches.
Could the Wimbledon record be broken now?
Not through another 70–68 deciding set.
Wimbledon introduced a final-set tiebreak at 12–12 in 2019. In 2022, the four Grand Slams adopted a common format: at 6–6 in the deciding set, players contest a first-to-10-point tiebreak, won by two. The Grand Slam announcement says the format applies at Wimbledon as well as the Australian Open, Roland-Garros and US Open.
A tiebreak can theoretically extend far beyond 10 points because a two-point margin is required, so the rules impose no fixed maximum match duration. But a deciding set can no longer reach 70–68 in games. Isner and Mahut’s benchmark therefore reflects both exceptional serving endurance and a scoring format Wimbledon no longer uses.