Wimbledon - John Isner is done, after 3 days, results inside [spoilers]

[Dr. Sak]

Isner and Freddie Prince Jr are twins.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Wolfpack

I found this on SBNation. As the person there puts it, see if you can find the point at which the Guardian blogger seems to slide off the deep end. He makes passing references to the "marathon match" when it's 5-5 and his focus is on bigger matches at the 2:45 timestamp entry, but slowly and surely you see him pulled into the maelstrom after that.

Jungle zombie tennis players dealing with crocodiles and eating spectators

My personal favorite is this one: "What happens if we steal their rackets? If we steal their rackets, the zombies can no longer hit their aces and thump their backhands and keep us all prisoner on Court 18. I'm shocked that this is only occurring to me now. Will nobody run onto the court and steal their rackets?"

So, when does this resume today (and, anticlimactically, end 61-59 a few minutes in )

SI

[whomario]

Should have resumed in a few minutes according to schedule, but depends on prior games on the court.

The winner plays Thiemo de Bakker btw who beat Santiago Giraldo 6:7 (4:7), 6:4, 6:3, 5:7, 16:14

I think that guy is glad to get some extra rest due to this epic Isner-Mahut game

at some point they had to be tempted to just say "screw this, that´s not worth it" and let up in concentration and punch that ball into the 10th row.

Plus Mahut allready won a game in qualification with 24-22 in the final set, whoa ...

[SirFozzie]

there was a thing on ESPN a few hours back that the earliest the match will resume is at 10:30 am

[Easy Mac]

Its on like an extremely long version of Donkey Kong.

[cthomer5000]

I really hope this ends in 10 minutes now.

[whomario]

starting with yet another landmark, ace No 100 for Isner !

60:60 !

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Easy Mac

Its on like an extremely long version of Donkey Kong.

Even Donkey Kong had a kill screen though.

[Alan T]

I am rooting for the opposite of you all. I actually hope this keeps going all day today and gets suspended for another day because of night!

[digamma]

Wonder if this will be some kind of turning point for tennis when they start looking at doing things to scale back the big serve and encourage big rallies. As much as this novelty item is cool to watch, it's pretty horrible tennis.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by digamma

Wonder if this will be some kind of turning point for tennis when they start looking at doing things to scale back the big serve and encourage big rallies. As much as this novelty item is cool to watch, it's pretty horrible tennis.

tennis on grass/lawn never is "great" in terms of technical quality, especially as the surface deteriorates, unprofessional opinion though ...

[cthomer5000]

I wanted it to end immediately for comic effect. Now that it's moving again, I too want an all-day marathon. I want one of these guys to have to quit for this thing to end.

[cthomer5000]

New Zealand need to score. I hope they start really going for it soon.

[spleen1015]

I too want this things to last forever.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

New Zealand need to score. I hope they start really going for it soon.

I know this post is in the wrong thread and this would be a threadjack even in the right thread, but...

You know what REALLY bothers me about soccer, to the point of irritation that justifies all the bad things I think about the sport?

The use of the plural verb to describe everything a singular team does.

[Passacaglia]

Yeah, but New Zealand consists of two islands.

[Ksyrup]

It's still one country - and would be, even if the entire population was physically playing this soccer game. They would be playing as a singular unit. Perhaps with the French team it would be appropriate to identify them as separate entities collectively on the same field, but...

ANYWAY - it's 68-67. Anyone get the feeling these two conspired last night to keep this going for as long as they can keep the charade up?

[whomario]

109-108 now !


just checking ...

[Ksyrup]

You know what this reminds me of? One of those reality TV show challenges where the contestants have to outlast the others by hanging over a bathtub of jello or stand on one foot on a chair in the water or balance something on their heads, etc., and all the contestants but two get knocked out within the first 15 minutes, and the final two end up going for over four hours or something until they make some sort of deal and one of them just gives up. Except here, it looks like they agreed to keep playing as long as they can to grab the headlines for one more day and bring Wimbledon to a screeching halt until they finish.

[Ksyrup]

IT'S OVER!

70-68.

[Ksyrup]

Oh, and Isner won - not that it really matters.

[stevew]

Q-Who won?
A-The viewing public.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I really believe that's one of the most remarkable feats I've ever seen. I'm just completely awestruck by the mental toughness of both, Mahud in particular having played from behind on every single service of the tiebreaker.

I'm not a tennis guy, follow it extremely casually at most, but I honestly can't recall ever being more impressed with two competitors as people in my life. YMMV, but that's what I take away from this.

[Ksyrup]

Actually, I think I agree with digamma. This is the absurd point to which tennis has come, as technology and strength has turned this into a game of big serves with little rallying, with a fraction of the elapsed time of a match actually being devoted to ongoing play.

Not that the endurance and competitiveness displayed isn't truly awe-inspiring, but the tennis itself - who wants to watch 200+ aces? This is probably why I used to watch tennis 2 decades ago, and now I barely bother with it.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I really believe that's one of the most remarkable feats I've ever seen. I'm just completely awestruck by the mental toughness of both, Mahud in particular having played from behind on every single service of the tiebreaker.

I'm not a tennis guy, follow it extremely casually at most, but I honestly can't recall ever being more impressed with two competitors as people in my life. YMMV, but that's what I take away from this.

This, although tennis has always been a secret love for me and one I wish I'd pursued more after playing my last two years in high school.

[spleen1015]

I found it more comedy than anything. You have 2 big servers who also suck a returning serves. There's nothing awestriking to me about 2 guys watching every other shot fly right on by them.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Actually, I think I agree with digamma. This is the absurd point to which tennis has come, as technology and strength has turned this into a game of big serves with little rallying, with a fraction of the elapsed time of a match actually being devoted to ongoing play.

Not that the endurance and competitiveness displayed isn't truly awe-inspiring, but the tennis itself - who wants to watch 200+ aces? This is probably why I used to watch tennis 2 decades ago, and now I barely bother with it.

We need to get Dusty Baker involved in tennis so it can go back to basics.

[Travis]

Very glad to see that it lasted for a little while today and from the sounds of it the crowd on hand was pretty into it and packed with celebrity/ex players and that there was a ceremony ready to roll once the match was over.

Given that this is likely the pinnacle for both guys at this tournament/possibly career (no idea if Mahut is playing doubles or if he's just flat out done, but it's really hard to imagine Isner going much of anywhere in either category at this point) it's nice to see them get some recognition from the tournament itself.

[MJ4H]

women's tennis > men's tennis for this and other more obvious reasons

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

I found it more comedy than anything. You have 2 big servers who also suck a returning serves. There's nothing awestriking to me about 2 guys watching every other shot fly right on by them.

{shrug} The average rally in men's grass court is now four strokes, according to an article on BBC.com.

As for the dominance of the serve in today's game, I find the current style to be just as compelling as watching repeated 20 volley points over the course of five sets. I just don't feel a need for it to become the tedium of soccer with rackets.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by stevew

We need to get Dusty Baker involved in tennis so it can go back to basics.

Dusty Baker was upset to find out that Isner only served 69 of the 138 games played in the 5th set. He was also surprised to find out that a white guy could last so long in the sun.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Travis

Given that this is likely the pinnacle for both guys at this tournament/possibly career (no idea if Mahut is playing doubles or if he's just flat out done, but it's really hard to imagine Isner going much of anywhere in either category at this point) it's nice to see them get some recognition from the tournament itself.

The commentators seemed to expect Izner & his partner to officially withdraw from doubles play. Kind of a shame there IMO, they're actually seeded fairly high (12th IIRC).

[Pumpy Tudors]

I thought I followed tennis fairly well these days, but I had never heard of John Isner before this. Is he considered to be a future star or anything? Just wondering if I've just missed this guy.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

I thought I followed tennis fairly well these days, but I had never heard of John Isner before this. Is he considered to be a future star or anything? Just wondering if I've just missed this guy.

Ranked #19 in the ATP going into the event, although I'll confess that if he weren't a UGA alum (and therefore a local celebrity even before this epic) I doubt I would have known his name.

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I really believe that's one of the most remarkable feats I've ever seen. I'm just completely awestruck by the mental toughness of both, Mahud in particular having played from behind on every single service of the tiebreaker.

I'm not a tennis guy, follow it extremely casually at most, but I honestly can't recall ever being more impressed with two competitors as people in my life. YMMV, but that's what I take away from this.

I don't think its the most impressive feat ever, but like Jon, I'm very impressed at the guys just going out there and pounding again. It has to be so easy to give up at 30-30 - and yet neither did. To continue to fight back and give it more than you thought speaks highly of both players.

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by sabotai

My google-fu found several forums and websites that say the US Open is the only one that uses the 5th set tiebreaker, the other three play to someone wins by 2.

Typical Yanks, always have to be different

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

I don't think its the most impressive feat ever, but like Jon, I'm very impressed at the guys just going out there and pounding again. It has to be so easy to give up at 30-30 - and yet neither did. To continue to fight back and give it more than you thought speaks highly of both players.

I'm with Crapshoot on this one - while it did seem to be a titanic display of lack of return game, the mental fortitude of both these guys is pretty intense to keep it going for over 10 hours.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

I thought I followed tennis fairly well these days, but I had never heard of John Isner before this. Is he considered to be a future star or anything? Just wondering if I've just missed this guy.

He certainly has that potential. He's just moved up into the seeded positions in the majors this year I believe. But as you no doubt saw, he desperately needs to improve his return of serve if he wants to make it to the Top 10. If he does that combined with his serve, I could see him winning a major someday.

[Solecismic]

If they hammered two posts into the grass on the baselines and chained each player to those posts, you'd have essentially the same result.

That a man with so little range to his game could be ranked in the top 32 and make more than a million dollars a year is an indictment of the sport.

This was not admirable, or exciting, or aesthetic, or representative of the sport. Any more than a cheap, plastic snow globe represents the beauty of Salisbury Cathedral.

They should put a giant asterisk over the entire tennis record book today. There were no winners, and the only losers were the poor fans who are sadly deluded if they think they endured eleven hours of history.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

and the only losers were the poor fans who are sadly deluded if they think they endured eleven hours of history.

Umm, arrogant much? I'm not even a tennis fan but that became more interesting, more compelling viewing than 95% of sporting events as far as I'm concerned.

How does that make me "deluded"? Because I'd put this one early round match miles ahead of watching thugs in the NBA? Or the artificial parity of the NFL? Or in watching golf virtually at all? Or at this point, even the largely unlikable and/or uninteresting cast of NASCAR? But yet somehow I was interested in this particular spectacle, despite the presence of two participants with connections (a Frenchman & a UGA Dawg, hell of a choice for me) I'm inclined to root against. That says something about the appeal of what took place.

You can have different taste in what's "entertaining" & I'd largely shrug. You could find the storyline uninteresting, or simply not like the aesthetics of modern tennis. But for you to deny the historical aspect of what took place over three days makes you sound like an idiot, specifically one that is too damned arrogant for their own fucking good.

[Ksyrup]

It was definitely history, strictly speaking. Whether it was worth watching is debatable. Definitely fascinating to follow from a Ripley's Believe It OR Not standpoint, though.

[Solecismic]

Oh, grow up. This was simply the celebration of endurance combined with extraordinary incompetence. It is a giant joke on the fans. What made that apparent was the juxtaposition (I watched between Cup games yesterday) of this match with Federer's. It was like watching high school tennis by comparison.

Look at the match stats - the extraordinary serving percentages. Both men excel in serve and are really, really terrible return men. That's the recipe for a long match. It was so bad during the hour I watched that I wondered if they had an agreement before the day began to set this record.

This is basically the baseball equivalent of celebrating the record for most pickoff attempts in a game. I love tennis when it's played well. This match was sheer tedium, and I'm surprised anyone is so personally upset with my opinion.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

This is basically the baseball equivalent of celebrating the record for most pickoff attempts in a game.

This made me laugh hard.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by Dr. Sak

Isner and Freddie Prince Jr are twins.

If they had played much longer, I'm sure more than a few people would have wanted to act like Freddie Prinze Sr.

[Tigercat]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

Look at the match stats - the extraordinary serving percentages. Both men excel in serve and are really, really terrible return men. That's the recipe for a long match. It was so bad during the hour I watched that I wondered if they had an agreement before the day began to set this record.

This is basically the baseball equivalent of celebrating the record for most pickoff attempts in a game. I love tennis when it's played well. This match was sheer tedium, and I'm surprised anyone is so personally upset with my opinion.

Would you be so dismissive if two great defenses shut out two bad offenses to create a record breaking long football game? (If perhaps they got rid of sudden death?) Flawed skills or not, these are two highly skilled players, playing in the greatest stage of their game, playing hard for 10 hours, and yet still no one could get the advantage.

Its understandable to not enjoy watching what transpired, but in no way should it be considered a travesty to tennis when two talented (even if they aren't close to elite) professionals play their hearts out and in the process rewrite the history books.

[Solecismic]

Yes, I would. In fact, they've implemented penalty kicks in soccer to prevent exactly this type of glorification of semi-mediocrity.

If an NFL playoff game went into four overtimes, it would be far from considered a classic, and, while it would certainly maintain some entries in the record book, history would not be all that kind.

Look at the women's record for longest tennis match. It stretched on for six-plus hours for an entirely different reason. Could you imagine sitting through it? One rally lasted nearly 700 shots. I believe this was during the Andrea Jaeger moonball era.

Tennis seems rather uniquely vulnerable to great feats of the mundane.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

Yes, I would. In fact, they've implemented penalty kicks in soccer to prevent exactly this type of glorification of semi-mediocrity.

Yep, and I don't think much of that gimmick either.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

I'm surprised anyone is so personally upset with my opinion.

{shrug} The way you chose to express that opinion made you come across like a horse's ass afaic, not to mention coming across as a personal attack on those who appreciated it. My reaction to it isn't particularly different than the reaction of fans of X (soccer/NASCAR/wrestling/NBA) who run across the same sort of thing.

[JonInMiddleGA]

ESPN.com writer Patrick Hruby faced Izner's serve a couple of years ago for a column

[kcchief19]

I was hooked and glued to this thing at work. Was it great tennis? No, after about 7 hours there was no way for it to be great tennis. Once this match reached a certain distance, both players tried to so hard not to lose instead of trying to win. They were so tired that they weren't pursuing balls, especially on breaks. They put their effort into holding serve and waiting for the other guy to falter.

That alone takes great mental patience. I'd never have the patience to play that out. I'd go for the win and some point. I thought it was great drama, even if it wasn't great tennis.

I hope everyone accepts this as a once in a lifetime occurrence and not a reason to implement fifth set tie breakers in the three majors. For me, ultimate sets are right up there with overtime playoff hockey as one of the great joys of sports.