Isner - Mahut Match, 2010 Wimbledon Championships

The Frenchman Mahut was not ranked high enough to qualify for the tournament automatically, and so had to progress first through the qualifying pre-tournament. In this he was seeded 27th. He played three qualification rounds, beating Frank Dancevic 6–3, 6–0, in the first round, then Alex Bogdanovic 3–6, 6–3, 24–22, and finally Stefan Koubek in five sets, 6–7(8), 3–6, 6–3, 6–4, 6–4. He had thus already played an unusually large amount of tennis in the week before the main tournament. Having played through the qualifying stage, Mahut was drawn against the 23rd-seed American Isner in the first round of Gentlemen's Singles.
The match started on the tournament's second day, Tuesday 22 June 2010. After four sets the match was halted due to darkness, with the score two sets each. Resuming on 23 June, it became the longest match ever. The match was suspended for a second time because of darkness on the evening of 23 June at 59–59 in the fifth set despite chants of "We want more, we want more" from the onlooking spectators. The match was resumed on 24 June. After a further hour of play, Isner won the final, and deciding set 70–68.