FINALLY!! It ends!

At Busted Raquet, a Tennis blog, this morning it read:

After ten hours, 153 games and almost 1,000 points, American John Isner and Frenchman Nicolas Mahut were locked at 59-59 in the fifth-set of their historic first-round match at Wimbledon when play was suspended for the second straight day due to darkness. You read the score correctly: 59-59. When the Wimbledon final had a 16-14 final set last year, that seemed like a marathon. In comparison, this match was like running to the moon.

The match that threatened to make the War in Afghanistan look short, has ended at 11 hours, five minutes.

After three days of a single Tennis match at Wimbledon, John Isner of the United States has won a first round match against Nicolas Mahut of France 3-2. The match was fiercely contested by both men who were both applauded and awarded for their perseverance.

The match broke records during its second day of play, so the figures as they stood at the end at the records. It is likely that they will stand for a very, VERY long time.

The records are thus: longest match: 11 hours, 5 minutes; longest set: the fifth set required 8 hours, 11 minutes; most games in a set: 138 in the fifth set; most games in a match: 183; most aces in a match by one player: Isner, 112; and total aces in a match: Mahut's 103 aces brought the total to 215.
The match set the record for most games played in a match both before and since the introduction of the tie-break. The previous records were the 2003 Australian Open quarter-final match, in which it took Andy Roddick 83 games to defeat Younes El Aynaoui 4–6, 7–6(5), 4–6, 6–4, 21–19, and the 112 games it took Pancho Gonzales in 1969 to defeat Charlie Pasarell in the first round 22–24, 1–6, 16–14, 6–3, 11–9 prior to the introduction of a tie-break.

The match set the record for the longest match by time. The previous official record (6 hours, 33 minutes) was set at the 2004 French Open when Fabrice Santoro defeated Arnaud Clément 6–4, 6–3, 6–7(5), 3–6, 16–14. It also passed the unofficial record of 6 hours and 40 minutes set on 25 February 2009, when Chris Eaton defeated James Ward 6–3, 6–2, 6–7(3), 2–6, 21–19 in a playoff match to represent the United Kingdom in the Davis Cup.

The fifth set alone lasted longer than the previous longest match. John Isner served his 79th ace to take the lead, 39–38 in the match. This passed Ivo Karlović's 78 aces that he served on 18 September 2009 in a Davis Cup match against Radek Štěpánek. He finished on a total of 112. Mahut also passed the previous record with 103 aces.

The first crack in Mahut's service game had come on the second point of the final game when he made a forehand error. On the next point, Mahut tried a delicate drop shot but was only able to make the ball nestle into the net on his side of the court. Mahut won the next point with a volley but then, once again, Isner got a swing at a second serve and it paid off.

The 6-foot-9 American cracked a forehand winner to give himself a fifth match point in this longest-ever set. As the crowd on Court 18 roared, Isner swung all-out with that backhand.

After the ball landed, Isner dropped to his knees and Mahut hung his head for a moment. At the net, Isner hugged his beaten opponent. There was an immediate on-court ceremony in which each player and chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani received special awards that came in boxes that seemed too heavy for the exhausted players to hold.

Isner told the crowd, "I got a little bit tired. When you come out and play and the atmosphere is like this, you don't feel tired even though we were. This crowd was fantastic."

And to his opponent, Isner said, "What more can you say? To share this day was an absolute honor."

Mahut also was given a chance to speak. He had to put down his award box first.

"At this moment, it is just really painful," he said. "Thanks to you guys, you were completely fantastic. John deserved to win. He served unbelievable. It was an honor to play. We played the greatest match ever, and Wimbledon is the greatest place to play."

Mahut had to serve to stay in the match 65 times, but he said he wasn't thinking about that.

"I was just thinking about the point and playing it," he said.

The final set alone lasted 491 minutes. Isner finished with 112 aces and Mahut had 103.

Isner, the 23rd seed, must now look ahead to his second-round match against Thiemo De Bakker of the Netherlands. De Bakker won his first-round match by the routine score of 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 16-14.

Immediately after the end of the match, both players and chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani were presented a special award from the AELTC by Tim Henman and Ann Haydon-Jones, followed by a photo taken showing the result on one of the two Court 18 scoreboards.

On Day 2 there had been a scoreboard failure at Court 18 where the historic match was played. The scoreboard froze at 47 all then went dark. IBM worked until 11:45 PM on the issue that evening and after a hotfix, was up and working today, accurately presenting the record scores.

The website lastly only a little longer. At 50 all, it reset to zero. Visitors were kindly asked to add 50 to the scores.

Reaction around the world has been admiration and awe. Some have tried to put perspective on a the match calling it the aforementioned "Marathon Match" and "The Neverending Story". The match was at first being called an Epic Match but after the suspension on Day 2, it drifted into Marathon territory.

Seriously, how could anyone have anything but admiration for the two men?

In addition, the Queen also visited Wimbledon today. She was at Centre Court, however, and did not see the match at Court 18. And who could blame her. No one could say for sure how long it would go.

This was the Queen's first visit to Wimbledon in 33 years. She met with some players including Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Venus and Serena Williams, and some former winners here, including Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova.

Busted Racquet put this best so I will quote them:

While it was great to see the queen making her way around the grounds at Wimbledon, she informed everyone that she isn't that big of a tennis fan. That couldn't have been more evident than a humorous exchange she had with Navratilova that ESPN reported during its coverage of the event.

According to Hannah Storm, the queen asked Navratilova if she had played Wimbledon often, to which the former nine-time champion humbly answered yes.

Honestly, you can't blame the queen for not knowing everything about the tennis world. She has worn the crown for 58 years, so it isn't like we're dealing with a spring chicken here.

Well, it was an all around historic day at Wimbledon and for Tennis. And it's only the 4th day of a 14 day tournament. Oy vey!