On June 24, 2010, the longest match in professional tennis history finally ended.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_24

• 2010 – At Wimbledon, John Isner of the United States defeats Nicolas Mahut of France, in the longest match in professional tennis history.

Isner–Mahut match at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships

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The Isner–Mahut match at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships is the longest tennis match in history. It was a first-round Men's Singles match, in which the American 23rd seed John Isner played against French qualifier Nicolas Mahut. The match began at 6:13 pm (British Summer Time, or 17:13 UTC) on Tuesday, 22 June 2010, on Court 18 at Wimbledon. At 9:07 pm, due to fading light, play was suspended before the start of the fifth set. After resuming on Wednesday, 23 June, at 2:05 pm, the record for longest match was broken at 5:45 pm. The light faded again, and so play was suspended at 9:09 pm, with the final set tied at 59 games all. Play resumed at 3:40 pm on Thursday, 24 June, and Isner won at 4:47 pm, the final set having lasted 8 hours, 11 minutes.

In total, the match took 11 hours, 5 minutes of play over three days, with a final score of 6–4, 3–6, 6–7(7–9), 7–6(7–3), 70–68 for a total of 183 games. It remains by far the longest match in tennis history, measured both by time and number of games. The final set alone was longer than the previous longest match.

Both players broke numerous Wimbledon and tennis records, including each serving over 100 aces, with the match being referred to as "the endless match." A rule change instituted for the 2019 Championships introducing a tie break in the fifth set (or third set for women's matches) means that the Isner–Mahut match will remain the longest match in Wimbledon tournament history in terms of games played, barring any future rule change.

Currently, the French Open is the only Grand Slam tournament that still has no tiebreaker system for the deciding set.

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Sat Jun 24, 2023: On this day, June 24, 2010, the longest tennis match ever played finally ended.

Fri Jun 24, 2022: On this day, June 24, 2010, the longest tennis match ever played finally ended.

Thu Jun 24, 2021: On this day, June 24, 2010, the longest tennis match ever played finally ended.

[MuseRider]

1. I remember watching that!

My two boys and I watched as much as we could but IIRC we were all bored by the end and had missed quite a bit of it. we laughed a lot it was so unbelievable.

[bearsfootball516]

2. I remember watching parts of it.

Both Isner and Mahut had tremendous serves that were virtually unreturnable. So they just traded points back and forth, as neither could return the other's serve.

[AZProgressive]

3. I remember that day

I didn't watch it because I didn't have cable at the time but I remember the match being posted here in the sports forum while it was happening live. Not a big tennis fan but that was an unforgettable match.