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The Longest Match

No, 11-hour tennis contest’s Isner is not Jewish

by
Marc Tracy
June 24, 2010
Nicolas Mahut, really really tired, yesterday.(ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty Images)
Nicolas Mahut, really really tired, yesterday.(ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty Images)

“Actually I am not of Jewish decent [sic] but I get asked that frequently I guess because my last name sounds somewhat Jewish,” John Isner writes on his Website.

The American tennis player’s first-round match against Frenchman Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon, the London tournament which is tennis’s most prestigious, just ended. It had reached the 11-hour mark and is, by leaps and bounds, the longest recorded professional tennis match in history. Final score: 3-2, Isner. Final score in the final set? 70-68.

And for a real, real treat, check out the Guardian‘s liveblog from yesterday.

Let it end, let it end, it’s 46-all. It was funny when it was 16-all and it was creepy when it was 26-all. But this is pure purgatory and there is still no end in sight. John Isner has just struck his 90th ace. Nicolas Mahut, poor, enfeebled Nicolas Mahut, has only hit 72. Maybe we should just decide it on the number of aces struck? Give the game to Isner and then we can all crawl into our graves

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.