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:-
.@Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/Re8QEKNjj2
— John Isner (@JohnIsner) October 19, 2018
#BREAKING: All England Club says #Wimbledon will introduce fifth-set tiebreakers starting next year.
— Sean O'Reilly (@SeanWFTS) October 19, 2018
No more long matches for @JohnIsner 😢
Congratulations @JohnIsner and @nmahut for having @Wimbledon longest match/set record FOREVER yours 😂😂#Wimbledon
— Imane. (@EmanDemerdash) October 19, 2018
Wimbledon breaks with its tradition and will have a tie break in deciding set. But set score must reach 12-12 . Long time coming and definitely called for
— daniel kaplan (@dkaplanSBJ) October 19, 2018
Thank God for that about time
— He's one of our own (@lewis_such) October 19, 2018
Final set tiebreak at 12-12
— Patrick McEnroe (@PatrickMcEnroe) October 19, 2018
Well played @Wimbledon !!!
Finally! This is a change that is long overdue and extremely welcome. Those interminably long matches were horribly boring beyond a certain point, ruined the schedules, and generally resulted in far poorer matches in the following round(s)
— In Oxford (@Oxford_Life) October 19, 2018
Well done #AELTC / #Wimbledon!
Good for player health and ensuring the tournament can fit in the 2 weeks, but shame about the loss of those novel games. #Wimbledon https://t.co/8JhjyhJQMN
— Toby Bonney (@TheNorthMonkee) October 19, 2018
Because Tennis is about a battle of attrition and an advantage score should be kept. Well done to Wimbledon for keeping their morals. https://t.co/Kqteyh22Ma
— Tony Fairbairn (@fairbairntony8) October 19, 2018
Wimbledon is a tournament of great tradition, but even it needs to move with the times. They created a roof over centre court so why couldn’t they introduce this tie breaker earlier ? Can’t expect players to be competitive in the next round when they’ve won 70-68 in the 5th set.
— Paul Malcolm (@paulmalcs) October 19, 2018
No more crazy long matches at Wimbledon :-(
— Caroline Fiennes (@carolinefiennes) October 19, 2018
I know it's all terribly sensible, but...
aeltc_announces_introduction_of_final_set_tiebreak.html