After seeing what happened with the Wimbledon final last year between Federer and Roddick and now this year’s epic of Isner-Mahut, maybe it is time for the English club to change their tiebreak rule to the current one.
Seriously, matches that span three days and last 11 hours and five minutes – the fifth set alone lastest longer than the previous record holder for match length – have no place in this game. It was no doubt borderline torture for these two poor players.
6-4, 3-6. 7-6 (7), 7-6 (3), 70-68. That sort of line is just ridiculous. There were 980 points played overall, Mahut won more, 502-478, but couldn’t come through in that one last set. What a player he is. To call him the loser of this match is slap in the face. He and Isner both fought to the very, very elongated end of this marathon and both should be commended.
And predictably, Isner’s next match wasn’t so great. He lost and did so quickly: The first set lasted 15 minutes. He fell 6-0, 6-3, 6-2 to Theimo de Bakker on Friday.
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