A plaque commemorating the Isner–Mahut match on Court 18 at Wimbledon.
This article details longest tennis match records by duration or number of games. The 1970–1973 introduction of the tiebreak reduced the opportunity for such records to be broken. However, among the four majors, the US Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon (since 2019) use the tiebreak in the final set, while the French Open, through 2021, was the only major to use the advantage set rules in the final set, which allows for an indefinite number of games until one player is ahead by two. A 2022 rule change now requires every Grand Slam tournament, even the Olympics (since 2021), to use the tiebreak in the final set.
All competitions
Key
W
F
SF
QF
#R
RR
Q#
P#
DNQ
A
Z#
PO
G
S
B
NMS
NTI
P
NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record; .
Overall
Longest matches by duration
John Isner (top) defeated Nicolas Mahut (bottom) 6–4, 3–6, 6–7(7–9), 7–6(7–3), 70–68 in a record 11 hours and 5 minutes
Only two professional competitive matches have lasted longer than seven hours and 14 matches have lasted longer than six hours.[1]
The longest women's match (by time) took place at a tournament in Richmond, Virginia, in 1984, when Vicki Nelson took 6 hours, 31 minutes to defeat Jean Hepner 6–4, 7–6(13–11). The match featured a 29-minute, 643-shot rally, the longest in professional tennis history, though no video exists of this point.[13][14]
Unlike men's singles matches, where Grand Slam events are still played over the best of five sets, all women's matches are now played as the best of three sets. All matches since January 1, 2019 have been checked, but there are likely to be many more from earlier years which have not yet been recognised, especially as qualifying matches in ITF tournaments before that date would normally have been played over the best of three tie-break sets.
Where different sources give durations for a particular match, the shortest elapsed time will be the one noted below.
The longest match consisting of two standard sets and a match tie-break was played in the second qualifying round of a $25,000 ITF tournament in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on January 9, 2023. Valentina Mutilba defeated Luciana Blatter 6–7(7–9), 7–6(12–10), [10–7]. The official ITF live scoring data recorded the duration as three hours and 44 minutes,[30] but SofaScore and TNNS both recorded three minutes less.[31][32]
^The fourth-longest match listed above was recorded in the ITF live scoring data as taking 5 hours and 4 minutes.[17] SofaScore recorded 4 hours and 54 minutes and TNNS recorded 4 hours and 55 minutes. The shortest of these has been included in this table.
^The sixth-longest match listed above was recorded in the ITF live scoring data as taking 4 hours and 50 minutes.[20] SofaScore recorded 4 hours and 46 minutes and TNNS recorded 4 hours and 47 minutes. The shortest of these has been included in this table.
^The eighth-longest match listed above was recorded in the ITF live scoring data as taking 4 hours and 53 minutes.[24] The shorter time, recorded by both SofaScore and TNNS, has been included in this table.
^The ninth equal-longest match listed above was recorded in the ITF live scoring data as taking 4 hours and 47 minutes.[27] SofaScore recorded 4 hours and 42 minutes and TNNS recorded 4 hours and 43 minutes. The shortest of these has been included in this table.
Arnaud Clément (pictured) lost the longest ever match at the French Open to Fabrice Santoro in 6 hours 33 minutes. He expressed his disappointment at losing the match which until 2010 held the record for the longest ever match stating: "Frankly, I don't give a damn ... What world record? Do I get a medal? If I'm not getting anything, frankly, I'm not interested. It doesn't count."[37]
The 2019 Wimbledon Men's final between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic lasted 4 hours 57 minutes and is the third longest singles final by time played.
Stefan Edberg's (pictured) 1992 victory over Michael Chang 6–7(3–7), 7–5, 7–6(7–3), 5–7, 6–4 in 5 hours 26 minutes remains the longest match at the US Open.
Note: World Tennis Magazine state that some media outlets have reported [this match] lasting approximately six hours.[58] This match therefore could have been the longest Olympic tennis match in terms of match duration as well as being the longest Olympic tennis match in terms of number of games.
Longest match by number of games, using tiebreaker scoring[57][59][60]
Note: Match played on 31 July 2012. Beating the previous record of 61 games set during the five set doubles final in 1988. The third set also set a record for most games played in a set at an Olympics, beating the previous record set at the 2004 Summer Olympics by Fernando González and Taylor Dent, 30 games, by 18 games.
Longest match by time played, after the tiebreaker introduction[57]
Note: Match played on 3 August 2012. This is also the longest best-of-three-sets men's singles match ever played in the Open era (with or without a tiebreaker in the final set).
Longest match by number of games, using tiebreaker scoring[57][59][60]
Note: Match played on 31 July 2012. Beating the previous record of 61 games set during the five set doubles final in 1988. The third set also set a record for most games played in a set at an Olympics, beating the previous record set at the 2004 Summer Olympics by Fernando González and Taylor Dent, 30 games, by 18 games.
Note: World Tennis Magazine state that some media outlets have reported [this match] lasting approximately six hours.[58] This match therefore could have been the longest Olympic tennis match in terms of match duration as well as being the longest Olympic tennis match in terms of number of games.
Longest match by time played, after the tiebreaker introduction[57]
Note: This match was played on 1 August 2012, only a day after Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs. Milos Raonic set the record of 66 games in a best-of-three-sets match.
Women's singles
Longest match by number of games, using tiebreaker scoring
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External links
BBC – Extreme tennis: the demands of a 10-hour game