Remember the John Isner-Nicolas Mahut match at Wimbledon 2010? Remember 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68? Remember how it went on for days, how Isner and Mahut battled on and on, Court 18 the venue, for eight hours and 11 minutes before the former emerged victorious?
Well, there won’t be such mega marathons played anymore at the All England Club in London as the organisers of the world’s oldest Slam have decided to introduce tie-breakers in the deciding set from next year.
“Our view was that the time had come to introduce a tie-break method for matches that had not reached their natural conclusion at a reasonable point during the deciding set,” said the club’s chairman Philip Brook.
The club said it had studied data from the past 20 years at Wimbledon, as well as consulting players and officials before reaching the decision.
In this year’s Wimbledon men’s final, South African Kevin Anderson lost to Novak Djokovic in straight sets less than two days after beating John Isner 26-24 in the fifth set after more than six-and-a-half hours on court.
Djokovic’s own five-set semi-final victory over Rafael Nadal also had to be played over two days due to the delay in a conclusion to the Anderson-Isner match.
Many on Twitter welcomed the move, arguing that it would reduce the strain on players and will help in scheduling the matches better. But the news is a disappointment for the lovers of marathon matches.
And, here’s how Isner reacted to the news:-
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