Karma haunts as John Isner loses an endless match

In 2010, at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, John Isner defeated Nicolos Mahut in the longest ever match of 8 hours and 11 minutes. A unfair as sport is sometimes, despite neither Mahut nor Isner deserving to lose, Isner was crowned as the victor of the longest ever tennis game in history.

They say that Karma haunts you. This time around, it was true. Isner who was playing his second round game at the French Open against Paul-Henri Mathieu, lost another marathon match. The final scorecard read 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 18-16. Yes, it was no where near the magnitude of that final set in Wimbledon, but it was yet another endless match and this time around, Isner was at the wrong end of it.

Mathieu celebrates as Isner is heartbroken

Despite losing the first set in a tiebreak, Mathieu came back strongly to take the second and third sets. Isner was strong enough to win the fourth and take the match into the final set.

As with most other Grand Slams, the final set in Roland Garros didn’t have a tiebreak. Both players held their serve as the final set went on and on. When the score was 15-15 in the fifth, Isner saved two match points to hold his serve. At that point, nobody predicted the marathon man would lose. Local boy Mathiu however,had the crowd behind him and that proved to be vital as he broke Isner’s serve to take the fifth set 18-16.

The match lasted for 5 hours and 41 minutes, the longest ever match at the French Open and the second longest overall. It also shattered the previous record for the most number of games played in French Open.

“I play tennis to live moments like these,” said Mathieu. “If I worked so hard to come back, it was to experience moments like this.” Despite hitting 41 aces, it was the 98 unforced errors that cost Isner the match.

Isner was a picture of a broken man after the match which took its toll on both the players. He had his way with one Frenchman two years ago but as fate would have it, another Frenchman would come back and haunt him. Having said that, you have to agree that John Isner is what tennis is all about – true grit and determination. At the end of the day, the American made sure that tennis was victorious once again .