Longest tennis match

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Even the scoreboard couldn't keep up.

The electronic sign keeping track courtside as the points passed and the game totals rose went blank while 23rd-seeded John Isner of Tampa, Fla., and qualifier Nicolas Mahut of France played -- and played and played -- the longest match in tennis history, until action was suspended because of darkness at 59-59 in the fifth set Wednesday night at Wimbledon.

"Nothing like this will ever happen again. Ever," Isner said in a courtside TV interview.

The first-round match had already been suspended because of fading light Tuesday night after the fourth set.

They have been playing each other for exactly 10 hours -- 7 hours, 6 minutes in the fifth set alone, enough to break the full-match record of 6:33, set at the 2004 French Open.

Never before in the history of Wimbledon, which was first contested in 1877, had any match -- singles or doubles, men or women -- lasted more than 112 games, a mark set in 1969. Isner and Mahut have played more games than that in their fifth set, without a victor, although the American came close: He had four match points but Mahut saved each one.

"He's serving fantastic. I'm serving fantastic. That's really all there is to it," Isner said. "I'd like to see the stats and see what the ace count looks like for both of us."

Well, here they are: Isner has 98 aces, Mahut 95 -- both eclipsing the previous high in a match at any tournament, 78. All the numbers are truly astounding: There have been 881 points, 612 in the fifth set. Isner has compiled 218 winners, Mahut 217. Isner has only 44 unforced errors, Mahut 37.

And this cannot be emphasized enough: They are not finished.

No one won yet.

The match will continue, stretching into a third day.

"He's just a champ. We're just fighting like we never did before," Mahut said. "Someone has to win, so we'll come back tomorrow and see who is going to win the match."

"Nothing like this will ever happen again. Ever," Isner said in a courtside TV interview.

The first-round match had already been suspended because of fading light Tuesday night after the fourth set.

They have been playing each other for exactly 10 hours -- 7 hours, 6 minutes in the fifth set alone, enough to break the full-match record of 6:33, set at the 2004 French Open.

Never before in the history of Wimbledon, which was first contested in 1877, had any match -- singles or doubles, men or women -- lasted more than 112 games, a mark set in 1969. Isner and Mahut have played more games than that in their fifth set, without a victor, although the American came close: He had four match points but Mahut saved each one.

"He's serving fantastic. I'm serving fantastic. That's really all there is to it," Isner said. "I'd like to see the stats and see what the ace count looks like for both of us."

Well, here they are: Isner has 98 aces, Mahut 95 -- both eclipsing the previous high in a match at any tournament, 78. All the numbers are truly astounding: There have been 881 points, 612 in the fifth set. Isner has compiled 218 winners, Mahut 217. Isner has only 44 unforced errors, Mahut 37.

And this cannot be emphasized enough: They are not finished.

No one won yet.

The match will continue, stretching into a third day.

"He's just a champ. We're just fighting like we never did before," Mahut said. "Someone has to win, so we'll come back tomorrow and see who is going to win the match."

Mahut actually has some recent experience in such matters: He won a four-hour match in the second round of qualifying last week that ended 24-22 in the third set.

Other Wimbledon competitors were glued to locker-room TVs, while some headed out to the court to see if they could catch a glimpse. That was easier said than done, because the stands at the relatively tiny court -- its official capacity is 782 — were full, and people packed in three-or-more deep along a railing overlooking the action.

"I don't think I'd move. I think if you moved, you lose your seat," Venus Williams said.

"It's a marathon," she added, then corrected herself: "It's longer than a marathon."

Roddick tweeted that it was "unreal."

Isner and Mahut began Wednesday at 2:04 p.m., with Court 18 bathed in sunlight and in heat that topped 80 degrees. As play carried on shadows crept across the court, and the well-manicured blades of green grass along both baselines eroded away, leaving patches of beige dirt in their place.

Organizers moved other matches that were supposed to be played on Court 18, and they also postponed Isner's doubles match that happened to be on Wednesday's schedule.

Because Isner served first in the fifth set, Mahut was faced with the difficult task of always trailing while serving, knowing that if he were to get broken he would lose.

Both players did show momentary signs of fatigue and frustration. Know this: Isner lost his only previous match at Wimbledon, exiting in the first round in 2008, while Mahut lost in the first round at the All England Club each of the past two years.

Seeking some extra energy, Isner wolfed down a sandwich and sipped from a plastic bottle of water during one changeover, and he scarfed down a banana at another. By the end of Wednesday, he was gritting his teeth on serves, rubbing his back between points and occasionally deciding not to chase shots. During one break, Mahut was visited by a tournament doctor and given some pills to swallow and later had a finger taped. After missing one shot, Mahut dropped to his knees and covered his head with both hands.

Even chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani, sitting in his perch long enough to have taken a trans-Atlantic flight, showed signs of fatigue. He tried to stay loose by massing his neck or stretching his legs, and as the match dragged on, Lahyani paused while reciting the score, as if to make sure he had the count correct.

"This is one of the few times where I feel bad for the umpire," noted official-berater John McEnroe joked on BBC's TV coverage.

It might not necessarily have been the most scintillating tennis, given that so many points were so brief, often consisting of merely an unreturned serve, followed by both players shuffling along the baseline to get in position for the next point.

What the match was, without a doubt, was riveting from this standpoint: Who would falter, even for a split-second, on a solitary stroke -- enough to finally turn control of things one way or the other?

Who would wilt first physically or mentally?

"Maybe they should agree to play a tiebreak," 2008 Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic mused.

In sum, it was a test of wills, and of a sort tough to compare to another individual sport -- unless, perhaps, a golf tournament's playoff extended for, say, 36 holes. In team sports, which don't really offer a true analogy, think of it as a baseball game that lasts 50 innings or a basketball game with 15 overtimes.

The longest Major League Baseball game in history lasted 8 hours, 6 minutes, with the Chicago White Sox beating the Milwaukee Brewers 7-6 in 25 innings on May 9, 1984.

And to think: Isner vs. Mahut could have concluded much, much earlier in the day.

Isner held a match point all the way back in the 20th game of the fifth set, when he was ahead 10-9 with Mahut serving. Mahut double-faulted twice to give Isner a break point and match point, but the Frenchman erased it with an ace.