Aces by the ton as epic breaks at 59-all

TENNIS WIMBLEDON CHAMPIONSHIPS:IT WAS one of those giant, cartoon-sized, attritional days.  Bigger than anyone could have imagined. Andy Roddick kicked it off on Centre Court against Michael Llodra but 6ft 3in Nicolas Mahut and 6ft 9in John Isner took it into the stratosphere with an epic, freaky, preposterous record-breaking match on court 18 that was stopped by bad light after over 10 hours play and had crowds flocking over as shadows crept across to finally witness the walking dead play tennis.

Just the last fifth set of this match was longer,at seven hours and six minutes, than any other match ever played before in a Grand Slam.

The two will resume battle at 59-59 in the fifth set.

Isner seemed to visibly shrink as the hours proceeded and Mahut kept throwing himself around the court as if it was in the first set. The electronic scoreboard gave up and the crowd shrieked like baboons when the two reached 50-49 in the fifth set, Isner the first to his half century of games.

It was Roddick who stood up to serve at around lunch time in his second round match against the unseeded Llodra.

The first serve was 129mph and unreturnable, the second a 130mph ace, the third a short rally, the fourth a 131 mph ace and the fifth a 118 mph ace. Maybe it set a tone.

Llodra, now coached by Amelie Mauresmo, took the first set and Roddick was in a hole.

Meanwhile out on the court tucked away beside Broadcasting House, the other American Isner was unloading heavy ordinance on to Mahut’s side of the net and Mahut was replying in the same vein.

By the time Roddick had finally climbed out of his Centre Court hole and won his match in four sets, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, 7-6 (2), had a shower, did his press interview and watched the USA qualify for the next round of the World Cup in South Africa, Isner and Mahut were still on court, hitting absurd numbers of aces at each other and generating fits of giggles from the crowd as the umpire declared ‘Isner leads Mahut 57-56, final set’.

By the end of it all they had played the longest match in Grand Slam history and both had exploded the previous Ivo Karlovic record of 51 aces in a match. Isner, ridiculously, delivered close to 100 aces and Mahut too.

“I love this. I’m sure they don’t. In some ways this is unheard of in our game,” said Roger Federer.

“This is one of the few times I actually feel sorry for the umpire,” said John McEnroe.

“I mean what can you say about that?” said Novak Djokovic. “Everybody is watching in the locker rooms, everywhere. I’m amazed that they can both hold their serves comfortably for the whole day. It’s unbelievable. Whoever wins, both of them are winners. Maybe they should agree on playing a tiebreak if it’s 50-all.”

It easily left behind the previous longest match record of Fabrice Santoro and Arnaud Clement set at Roland Garros in 2004. The two played over two days for six hours and 33 minutes.

The previous longest Wimbledon match was in 2006, a doubles quarter-final, also over two days, that lasted six hours and nine minutes.

But last night obliterated everything that had come before. Isner’s family could have comfortably flown from North Carolina and made it it time to watch him for a couple of hours. Isner had a match point at 59-58 but Mahut threw down his 95th ace of the match and on it went.

The crowds remained and even squeezed in along the walkways and on top of any balcony that had a view of the match or even the scoreboard.

The referee came out and said ‘two more games’. The crowd chanted ‘we want more. We want more’.

Mahut was claiming he could not see the ball and consultations took place on the court.

Finally the referee said “we need to stop now.”

And then declared that due to bad light the game is stopped. The crowd stood up and the players left to a standing ovation after exactly 10 hours of play.

“We are just fighting like we never did before. Some one has to win, we have to come back tomorrow, everyone wants to see the end but they have to come back tomorrow,” said Mahut

“Nothing like this will ever happen again, ever.

“I don’t know what to say. I’d like to see the stats to see what the ace count looks like for both of us. We both couldn’t agree to play so they cancelled,” said Isner at the conclusion, although not the end of one of the most extraordinary sporting events ever to take place at Wimbledon. It was Isner who wanted to continue but Mahut was content to pass.

The question was should they continue on Centre Court in front of the Queen?

Lleyton Hewitt, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer also advanced with various degrees of difficulty, Federer beating the fun-loving Serb nicknamed Bozo.

Replete with shades and a porn star girlfriend somewhere in the background, Ilija Bozoljac, fell 6-3, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6 to Federer but not without causing some consternation.

Again not a vintage Federer but doing enough without shouting to the world that he is in anything like the form of his life.