When I heard that Tennis Channel was going to use the middle Sunday, where is a rest day for all players, to re-telecast every point of the Isner-Mahut match, I wondered if they had gone insane.  The match was 8 hours and 11 minutes long.  While it was exciting to watch the match as it went along, reliving every minute was not a chore I’d want to go through.

Instead, Tennis Channel made a smart move.  The NFL network, when it rebroadcasts football games, will often remove any extraneous bits.  Matches that last 4 hours can be reduced to a fraction of that time.

I estimate that it took about a minute for each game.  With nearly 140 games, you could rebroadcast the entire match in maybe 2-3 hours.  With 90 seconds between ever other game, and up to 30 seconds between points, and even a few seconds between first and second serves, a bit of judicious editing can convert a 5 minute game into a one minute game.  And because the extraneous parts are removed, the match even feels faster, even if it takes about 3 hours to complete.

Interspersed with interviews, you don’t get overly bogged down with watching the match go on and on and on.

Nice job, Tennis Channel!