The most epic tennis match ever?

Before today, very few people outside of the tennis world had heard of John Isner (currently ranked number 19 in the world) and even fewer people had heard of Nicolas Mahut (ranked 148 in the world). However, both men have played themselves not only into the trending topics but also the history books today as they played out the longest tennis match in history...

When they started their second round match on Tuesday, there was little indication of the monumental contest that was set to follow - Isner took the opening set, Mahut took sets two and three, and Isner tied the score by taking the fourth set. At this point, bad light stopped play and so the fifth set was scheduled to be played today...

The match resumed today at 14.00 UK time and, as the afternoon wore on, it gradually became apparent that neither man appeared particularly inclined to either win or lose...

By 15.15 it was 11-11 in the fifth set and the match had gone on for a, fairly lengthy, four hours and eight minutes.

By 15.49 it was 16-16 and John Isner had just broken the Wimbledon record for the most aces in a match (with 40).

By 16.14 it was 22-22 and people were starting to peer into the record books to have a look at what was the longest ever fifth set at Wimbledon and, indeed, what was the longest ever match at Wimbledon.

By 16.45 the match had seen the most games in one set (48) at Wimbledon and was heading towards becoming the longest match in Wimbledon history.

By 17.48 the match had become the longest match in the history of tennis, but still neither man appeared willing to buckle.

By 17.55 the record for the most number of games in a Wimbledon match fell.

By 18.30 the record for the most aces in a tennis match had fallen as Irsen served his 79th of the match.

By 19.32 the match clocked up its 500th minute - with the fifth set taking five and a half hours so far...

At 19.55 one of the scoreboards - clearly unprepared for such ridiculous scoring - gave up and froze at 47-47 but the players continued onwards...

19.59 and the (working) scoreboard read 50-50. Isner looked like he'd be quite happy to decide the match by tossing a coin...

At 21.05, Isner had match point - but Mahut hit his 95th ace of the match to take it to 59-59.

At this point, play was stopped for the day with the match clock reading ten hours. Play will resume tomorrow when, hopefully, we'll have a winner at last...

But, surely the most epic tennis match in history - the longest match, the most games, the most aces, the longest fifth set. Of course, who ever does win the match is probably not going to be pleased to discover that their third round match is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon...