Epic duo eyes Wimbledon War II
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Shanghai Daily, June 21, 2011
It takes just 10 seconds to read the 33 words printed on a new, oval plaque mounted outside Wimbledon's Court 18 to commemorate the longest-ever tennis match, which took place at the All England Club in London a year ago.
It is a typically understated acknowledgement by Wimbledon organizers to the feat achieved by John Isner and Nicolas Mahut - but then no amount of words could sum up an act of extraordinary human endurance that spanned three days and lasted 11 hours and five minutes over five sets.
Today, those two same gladiators will return to the All England Club for a re-match after they were shocked to be drawn together for a first-round clash that is being dubbed "Wimbledon War II".
"I'm very happy to come back to the UK and play in front of the English fans and at the same time I'm a little bit worried about being able to meet the expectations. It's a question of not letting people down," Frenchman Mahut, who lost last year's epic match, said in an interview in the days running up to the grasscourt grand slam.
"Freakish", "astonishing", "unbelievable", "mind-boggling", "bizarre" are just some of the words competitors used when Isner and Mahut were drawn together again for this year's tournament - the same words that were used to describe their first-round encounter last June that hypnotized a global audience of billions.
Going into today's encounter, American Isner summed up the sentiments of the two players best by saying: "It's weird and it's cruel."
At the time of the draw last Friday, Wimbledon referee Andrew Jarrett twisted the knife further by suggesting: "There is every possibility we could schedule it for Court 18 again."
That would be the worst-case scenario for Mahut, who plunged into depression for three months after losing the 183-game match 4-6, 6-3, 7-6, 6-7, 68-70. "I hope the organizers will try and avoid that situation (of playing again on Court 18). But if I have to go back out there, then I don't know. It will be a strange feeling because it will be impossible for me not to think about (last year's) match," said Mahut.
Chances are that with so much buzz surrounding the re-match, a court seating just 782 spectators will not do and this time they will play out Act II of their rivalry on either Centre Court or Court One.
"This time there's obviously a lot of attention and all this is a bit new," said Mahut, who has been struggling to come to terms with the hype.
A year ago, Mahut served the first ball of the match at 6.13pm on Tuesday June 22. The "never-ending match" finally reached its conclusion at 4.48pm on Thursday June 24.
The fifth set alone lasted eight hours 11 minutes and was 98 minutes longer than the previous longest grand slam match ever played - Fabrice Santoro's win over Arnaud Clement at the French Open in 2004.
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