It was surprising the players held up this well. Today’s players have so much support with them, that they recover much better than they would have 30-40 years ago where a player might be lucky if they had a coach. Few would have any idea how to recover in such a situation. But today, both players seemed pretty fresh, given the marathon of a match they played until it was called because of darkness.
The match was called at 59-all last night. Andy Roddick was so inspired by the performance that he treated the entire Isner clan to food. He lent his masseuse who has been with Roddick for some time for Isner’s use which is Roddick being his classiest.
The match that wouldn’t end had gotten some notoriety overnight. As soon as the grounds were open, fans rushed to Court 18, at the outer courts, wanting to get their seats to be a part of tennis history. Karen Isner, John’s mom, had been in the stands for 7 hours yesterday and was ready to support her son once again. John McEnroe and Tracy Austin sat side by side. Both players entourages were curtailed to let more people to sit.
There was some thought that the Queen, not known to be a tennis fan, might sit in and enjoy this match, but she was only planning to watch the Andy Murray match. When that match ended quickly, she toured around some more of the grounds and then hastily left Wimbledon, mere moments before the Isner-Mahut match was scheduled to recommence for the third day in a row.
Many of the tennis luminaries were asked about the match from Roger Federer to Andy Roddick to Novak Djokovic to Venus Williams. All marveled at the length of the match, the heart of the two players.
Fans gathered en masse, perhaps nothing ever so momentous for a first round match played on an outer court with no ShotSpot.
It seemed, at the start, that Mahut was again the fresher of the two as he had been all of Wednesday. He was striking the ball hard from all parts of the court, and Isner seemed like he did not have the wheels to chase the balls down. Mahut was flicking winners with his backhand and his forehand. His serve seemed somewhat less effective than yesterday, though he crawled over the century mark in aces too, but he seemed better off the ground.
John Isner managed to keep serving bombs to get him out of trouble. At one point, he was down 0-30, then took four consecutive points.
Isner’s coach had advised him not to worry when Mahut took advantage, but simply to wait for his opportunity and take what he was given.
At 69-68 with Mahut serving, Isner got a point to 15-all. In a match where 0-30 in the previous game was considered a glimmer of hope, even 15-all seemed like positive news, as the announcers hoped, a fool’s hope, that maybe this was a turning point. And it turned out to be prophetic.
At 15-all, Mahut came to net and attempted a drop half-volley. Isner had already slipped unable to properly react when he saw Mahut attempt the half-volley. For a brief moment, Isner showed disgust at his misfortune which morphed into a chance when the ball found the net.
15-30.
Mahut came to net again after hitting another serve to the Isner backhand. Mahut took the backhand volley into the open court.
30-all.
Mahut again found himself at net, but gave Isner a chance to pass. Isner took a swipe and hit a forehand short up the line.
30-40. Match point.
Mahut served again to the Isner backhand and Isner came up with a decent return. Mahut volleyed it to the Isner backhand and Isner threaded a pass up the line to secure the break and the win.
70-68!
And the longest match was finally (finally!) over, a shade into its 11th hour, with 20 games played today. Isner fell to the ground in joy. Mahut looked dejected.
The Wimbledon management did a good job to have a short ceremony afterwards to congratulate the two players. Each were given prizes as was the umpire, Mohammed Lahyani. 20 games were played today making the grand total 183 games.
Nicolas Mahut looked a bit distraught. Normally, the loser (and it’s hard to call Mahut the loser) leaves right away, but the additional ceremony plus a picture by the scoreboard with the 2 players and the chair umpire and gifts given to both players meant Mahut had to endure the ignominy longer than usual.
Some final stats. Isner ended with 112 aces. Mahut with 103 aces. Isner had 246 winners to Mahut’s 244 winners. Isner faced only 3 break points the entire match, one back in the first set, and 2 more around 51-50. Isner had 5 match points, one at 9-10, two more at 33-32, one at 59-58, and then the one at 69-68 which he won.
A few other results. Andy Murray had an easy win over Jarkko Nieminen. Murray had to fend off quite a few break points early on, but had a good hold then pretty much had no troubles: 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.
Robin Soderling continues to play well beating Spaniard Marcel Granollers: 7-5, 6-1, 6-4.
Alex Dolgopolov made Jo-Wilfried Tsonga work. After Tsonga won the first two sets, Dolgopolov took the next 2 and they went 10-8 in the fifth set.
Julien Benneteau also needed five sets to beat Andreas Beck. Gilles Simon didn’t have to play a match and won in a walkover when Marchenko withdrew. And to complete a trio of successful Frenchman, Jeremy Chardy beat Lukas Lacko in five sets making three Frenchman that played five sets today with two successful and one (Mahut) not so much.
Thomaz Bellucci needed four close sets to be Austrian Martin Fischer. Tomas Kamke of Germany beat Andreas Seppi in four sets.
Another American is trying to win a match that suddenly got tight. Michael Russell was up two sets to love over Fabio Fognini, but Fognini has won the next two sets, and they are in a fifth set. Sam Querrey has won the first set over Ivan Dodig, but is even in the second set. David Ferrer is also up a set and even in the second against Florent Serra.
Amazing, Nadal has dropped as a set to Robin Haase, 7-5. He is up a break in the second set.
So now the question is whether Isner will decide to withdraw from doubles to recover. Sam Querrey did likewise when he left Roland Garros after his first round loss.
All in all, John Isner showed why he’s been so successful. The Georgia Bulldog keeps fighting. And this time, unlike poor Ivo, the guy with the most aces won the match.
