The Longest Tennis Match Ever: 11 Hours, 3 Days and 183 Games

The longest tennis match ever played is John Isner’s 11-hour, 5-minute win over Nicolas Mahut in the first round of Wimbledon 2010. It ran across three days, finished 70-68 in the fifth set, and produced a scoreline no tournament had ever had to display before.

That is the headline answer, but it is not the whole one. The longest match in tennis history is a singles match. The second longest is a doubles rubber that almost nobody can name. And the longest women’s match contains a single rally that lasted 29 minutes. Here is the full picture, by category.

The Longest Tennis Matches: Records at a Glance

Record	Match	Event	Duration	Deciding set
Longest match ever	John Isner d. Nicolas Mahut	Wimbledon 2010, R1	11h 05m	70-68
Longest doubles match	Berdych/Rosol d. Wawrinka/Chiudinelli	Davis Cup 2013	7h 02m	24-22
Longest Davis Cup singles	Leonardo Mayer d. João Souza	Davis Cup 2015	6h 43m	15-13
Longest Grand Slam match	Kevin Anderson d. John Isner	Wimbledon 2018, SF	6h 36m	26-24
Longest women’s match	Vicki Nelson-Dunbar d. Jean Hepner	Richmond 1984, R1	6h 31m	7-6(13-11)
Longest women’s Slam match	Francesca Schiavone d. Svetlana Kuznetsova	Australian Open 2011, R16	4h 44m	16-14
Longest Grand Slam final	Novak Djokovic d. Rafael Nadal	Australian Open 2012, F	5h 53m	7-5

The Longest Men’s Match: Isner vs Mahut, Wimbledon 2010

It began at six o’clock in the evening on Tuesday 22 June 2010, on Court 18, between the 23rd seed and a qualifier. It finished at 4.47pm on Thursday 24 June. In between, two men played 183 games and 980 points, and neither of them was broken once in the fifth set.

Three days on Court 18

Play was suspended at 9.07pm on the Tuesday with the match level at two sets each, after just under three hours on court. They returned at 2.05pm on the Wednesday to start the fifth, and were still playing when the light went again at 9.09pm. The score at that second suspension was 59-59. Total match time already stood at 9 hours 58 minutes, which meant the fifth set on its own had passed seven hours and was still not finished.

They came back on the Thursday at 3.40pm. It took Isner another 67 minutes to break, on Mahut’s 69th service game of the set, and win it 70-68.

The set that broke the scoreboard

Wimbledon used no tie-break in the deciding set in 2010, so the fifth simply continued until someone broke serve. Nobody did, for 138 games.

The courtside scoreboard stopped at 47-47 and then went dark. IBM’s programmers explained that it had only ever been built to display up to 47-47, because no one had imagined needing more. The online scoreboard was reset at 50-50, with viewers asked to add 50 to the game score themselves. The tournament had run out of numbers before the players ran out of serve.

The numbers

Isner served 113 aces and Mahut 103. The record for a single match before that day stood at 78. Mahut actually won more points across the three days, 502 to Isner’s 478, and still lost. That is the arithmetic of a set decided by a single break in 138 games: the margin was one shot, and everything else cancelled out.

What it cost him

Isner played his second-round match the following afternoon. He lost to Thiemo de Bakker 0-6, 3-6, 2-6 in 74 minutes, did not serve a single ace, and needed treatment for his neck and shoulder throughout. The man who had just served 113 aces could not hold serve once in three sets.

The Longest Women’s Match: Nelson-Dunbar vs Hepner, 1984

The longest women’s match on record was a first-round meeting at the Central Fidelity Banks International in Richmond, Virginia, on 24 September 1984, where Vicki Nelson-Dunbar beat Jean Hepner 6-4, 7-6(13-11) in 6 hours 31 minutes. Two sets. Six and a half hours.

The reason is the most extraordinary single statistic in tennis. Deep into the second-set tie-break, on set point for Hepner, the two of them played a rally of 643 shots lasting 29 minutes, the longest rally ever played in a professional match. Both were content to loop the ball back and wait, and neither blinked for almost half an hour on a single point.

The longest women’s Grand Slam match is a different record and a more modern one: Francesca Schiavone beat Svetlana Kuznetsova 4-6, 6-1, 16-14 in the fourth round of the Australian Open on 23 January 2011, in 4 hours 44 minutes. Schiavone, the reigning French Open champion at the time, saved six match points.

The Longest Doubles Match: Davis Cup, 2013

The second-longest match in the history of the sport is a doubles rubber. On 2 February 2013 in Geneva, Tomáš Berdych and Lukáš Rosol beat Stan Wawrinka and Marco Chiudinelli 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-7, 24-22 in 7 hours 2 minutes. The deciding set alone lasted 215 minutes, longer than most five-set matches.

The Swiss pair saved twelve match points. On the thirteenth, Chiudinelli double-faulted. The previous Davis Cup record had stood for thirty-one years: John McEnroe’s 6 hour 22 minute win over Mats Wilander in 1982.

It is also the longest match ever completed inside a single day’s play. The only longer match in the sport’s history, Isner and Mahut, needed three.

The Longest Grand Slam Matches

Strip out Davis Cup and the longest match at a major, after Isner and Mahut, is another Wimbledon epic involving the same man. In the 2018 semi-final, Kevin Anderson beat Isner 7-6(6), 6-7(5), 6-7(9), 6-4, 26-24 in 6 hours 36 minutes. Anderson then lost the final in straight sets.

Before 2010, the record belonged to Fabrice Santoro and Arnaud Clément, whose first-round match at the 2004 French Open lasted 6 hours 33 minutes. It stood for six years and was beaten by nearly four and a half hours.

The longest Grand Slam final is Novak Djokovic‘s 5 hour 53 minute win over Rafael Nadal at the 2012 Australian Open, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7, 7-5, which finished at 1.37am.

Longest Match, Longest Game, Longest Tie-Break

These are three different records and they get confused constantly.

The longest game was played at the Surrey Grass Court Championships in Surbiton on 26 May 1975, between Anthony Fawcett and Keith Glass. One service game went to 37 deuces, 80 points and 31 minutes. A single game lasted longer than many complete sets.

The longest tie-break at tour level came at the Dallas Open on 12 February 2022, where Reilly Opelka beat Isner 7-6(7), 7-6(22). The second-set breaker went to 24-22, a total of 46 points. Isner held ten set points in it and Opelka eight match points.

Isner is the only player to appear in three of these records. He won the longest match ever played, lost the longest Grand Slam match, and lost the longest tie-break.

How These Matches Changed the Rules

Isner and Mahut did not just set a record. They ended the format that made it possible.

For most of the sport’s history the four majors could not agree on how to finish a match. The US Open had used a final-set tie-break at 6-6 for decades. Wimbledon, the Australian Open and Roland-Garros all played advantage final sets, which is why a set could reach 70-68 in the first place.

The 2018 Anderson and Isner semi-final, decided 26-24 after the fifth set alone had taken almost three hours, forced the issue. In 2019 the Australian Open introduced a 10-point tie-break at 6-6 in the deciding set, and Wimbledon introduced a tie-break to seven at 12-12. Roland-Garros kept advantage sets.

In 2022 all four majors finally standardised, adopting a 10-point final-set tie-break at 6-6 from Roland-Garros onwards. A men’s singles match at a major can no longer run past 6-6 in the fifth.

Which means the 11-hour record is almost certainly permanent. The conditions that produced it were abolished because of it.

For why matches are still getting longer even under the new rules, see our look at why this season is producing the longest matches in years.

FAQ

Longest Tennis Match FAQs

What is the longest tennis match ever played?

John Isner beat Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68 in the first round of Wimbledon 2010. It lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes across three days, 22 to 24 June, and is recognised by Guinness World Records as the longest professional tennis match.

Was the 11-hour match played in one day?

No. Play was suspended for bad light twice, once at two sets all and again at 59-59 in the fifth, so the match ran across three days. The longest match ever completed inside a single day is the 7 hour 2 minute Davis Cup doubles rubber between Berdych/Rosol and Wawrinka/Chiudinelli in February 2013.

What is the longest women’s tennis match?

Vicki Nelson-Dunbar beat Jean Hepner 6-4, 7-6 in 6 hours 31 minutes at Richmond in 1984, a two-set match that included a 643-shot rally lasting 29 minutes. The longest women’s Grand Slam match is Francesca Schiavone’s 4 hour 44 minute win over Svetlana Kuznetsova at the 2011 Australian Open.

What was Novak Djokovic’s longest match?

The 2012 Australian Open final, which he won 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7, 7-5 against Rafael Nadal in 5 hours 53 minutes. It remains the longest Grand Slam singles final ever played and finished at 1.37am.

Could the record ever be broken?

Not at a Grand Slam. Since 2022 all four majors end a deciding set with a 10-point tie-break at 6-6, so no major match can produce another 70-68 set. A longer match would now need to come from a format that still allows advantage sets.

More Tennis Records

For the all-time major counts see our most Grand Slam titles page, the current form guides in our 2026 season leaders, and more long reads in our tennis features.