What A Day At The Office

With the story of the day being Landon Donovan's miraculous goal in the 91st minute to send the United States to the knockout round at the World Cup, it's another American in his now 600th minute of play that has captured my attention...

With many of the eyes around the world locked into the happenings in South Africa, a little tournament by the name of Wimbledon, played in England stole the day and gave us history. In the 2nd round of the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, American John Isner and Frenchman Nicolas Mahut put on a show of epic proportions, with the most incredible point being that the match has yet to name a winner. The story of what is now the longest match in professional Tennis history still has no ending, with the final chapter likely to be written tomorrow.

I think back to last years Wimbledon final between the great Roger Federer and Andy Roddick, and I remember thinking to myself, as Roger put Andy away 16-14 in the 5th set,  how great it was to watch 2 competitors absolutely refuse to lose. As crazy as it would have sounded then, that match was a light morning jog compared to the marathon that the world was treated to today. At the time it was suspended, the match totaled 9 hours and 58 minutes with 7 hours and 6 minutes being played today alone, as the match was also suspended for 'darkness' last night after completing the first 4 sets. Incredibly the 5th set alone would stand as the longest tennis match in history, but apparently both Isner and Mahut wanted to insure their match would stay in the record books as they clearly set a high standard with a match duration unlikely to be broken. At the time of the stoppage the 5th set was at an incredible 59-59 dead lock. The box score in itself is as impressive as the time as each player is a threat to break 100 aces for the match.

With more tennis still to play, Isner holds a 98-93 Ace advantage over Mahut. As a Tennis fan, the match today was as rewarding as it was exhausting for the players involved. In a sport so dominated by other countries, it has been difficult to sustain any momentum in its popularity here in the states. As I stated in an earlier article, if Roger Federer was an American maybe his star is even higher than it currently is. Being that an Epic match such as this claims an American as one of its participants, I'd like to think that maybe something like this could kick start a dying interest in the sport. I know it won't though, but for those 10 hours and counting, man was it entertaining.