John Isner of the U.S.A. bites his towel during his match against Marin Cilic of Croatia at the Wimb …
Advertisement
A match between two missile-serving giants had the potential to go on for hours but luckily for Marin Cilic he only needed 15 minutes and two games on Saturday to complete a 7-6(4) 6-7(6) 6-4 6-7(4) 12-10 win over John Isner.
Cilic, last year’s US Open champion, seeded ninth here, and a big server at 6 feet 6, and Isner, seeded 17th and 6-10, played for 4 hours 16 minutes and were tied at 10-10 in the fifth set when daylight ran out.
Five years ago, Isner beat Frenchman Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon in the longest tennis match ever played.
Cilic had a chance to end it Friday while leading 5-4, holding a match point when Isner served at 30-40. “I just missed them”, Isner said, shaking his head. “But you never know as it’s a new day, new conditions and it’s lucky that I broke him at the first opportunity”.
The 6-foot-10 Isner, who led Georgia to an NCAA team championship and now is based in Florida, is trying to reach the fourth round at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament for the first time. “If you haven’t been in that situation before, it’s not easy, and I didn’t handle it that well today”. From the first game of the match, it was evident that this would be the case; Isner was able to close out the open game in a little more than fifty seconds with three aces. “I was really pleased how I managed to keep my composure”, said Wozniacki. Isner was involved in the longest match played here, or anywhere, with an 11-hour 5-minute victory, over three days, against Nicholas Mahut in 2010. “Certainly there is some nerves out there”, Isner said.
Advertisement
The victor of the match will face Denis Kudla, the wild card who defeated Santiago Girardo of Colombia with a 6-2, 6-7(3), 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 win.
