Isner Finally Beats Mahut in Wimbledon Marathon

Men's tennis has been pretty boring and largely unwatchable since Roger Federer began his domination of the game (apologies to Andy Roddick and Rafael Nadal, but it's true). Tuesday, Wednesday and yesterday, though, something unprecedented happened, and the match between American John Isner and Nicolas Mahut of France will be spoken of for as long as people play with racquets on grass or clay. The final score was 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (3), 70-68. Yes, 70-68.

The 11+ hour match occurred because there is no tie-breaker in the fifth set at Wimbledon. They play under the decades old rule of winning the set by two games. So, every time that Mr. Isner held serve, he went ahead in the set. And in order to win, he had to break Mr. Mahut's service. Darkness fell on southwest London on Tuesday and Wednesday before he could do that.

Thursday, they resumed play on Court 18 (a court far removed physically and culturally from the famed Centre Court) with the score level at 59-59. After 18 more games, it remained level at 68-68. Mr. Isner, a massive 6 foot 9 inch player, held his serve to make it 69-68. Gaining his fifth match point, Mr. Isner returned the serve, Mr. Mahut drove it too long, and Mr. Isner put them both out of the common misery.

It is a sports cliché to say that it is a shame someone had to lose. One doubts, though, if there was an occasion in which it was a more apt expression. After his loss, Mr. Mahut really just wanted to go to the locker room and put himself back together. The Wimbledon set were having none of it. The BBC noted, "Before the interview the pair were each presented with a crystal bowl and crystal champagne flutes by the All England Club to mark their historic match." The crowd chanted, "More! More!"

Exceptional sportsmanship was the order of the post-match day. "This crowd was fantastic," Mr. Isner said in his BBC interview, adding, "What more can you say? The guy's an absolute warrior. It stinks someone had to lose. To share this with him was an absolute honor. Maybe we'll meet again somewhere down the road and it won't be 70-68."

Mr. Mahut echoed: "At this moment I'm just really thankful. It was amazing today. John deserved to win. He served unbelievable, he's a champion. It was really an honor to play the greatest match ever at the greatest place for tennis. It was very long but I think we both enjoyed it."

Over at the World Cup, the French side went out in the first round, just as Mr. Mahut did at Wimbledon. There is a huge difference though -- Mr. Mahut tried with everything he had and in doing so, elevated himself, his opponent and the game itself to a new dimension. The French footballers cannot say the same. And this just in, Mr. Isner has lost to Thiemo de Bakker: 6-0, 6-3, 6-2 in 74 minutes.

© Copyright 2010 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.

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