This article details longest tennis match records by duration or number of games. The 1970âÂÂ1973 introduction of the tiebreak reduced the opportunity for such records to be broken. However, among the four majors, the US Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon (since 2019) use the tiebreak in the final set, while the French Open, through 2021, was the only major to use the advantage set rules in the final set, which allows for an indefinite number of games until one player is ahead by two. A 2022 rule change now requires every Grand Slam tournament to use the tiebreak in the final set. The Olympic Games have also used a final set tiebreak since 2016.
Only two professional competitive matches have lasted longer than seven hours and 14 matches have lasted longer than six hours.
The IsnerâÂÂMahut match at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships holds the record for the longest tennis match both in time and games played. It lasted for 11 hours and 5 minutes.
The longest women's match (by time) took place at a tournament in Richmond, Virginia, in 1984, when Vicki Nelson took 6 hours, 31 minutes to defeat Jean Hepner 6âÂÂ4, 7âÂÂ6<sup>(13âÂÂ11)</sup>. The match featured a 29-minute, 643-shot rally, the longest in professional tennis history, though no video exists of this point.
Unlike men's singles matches, where Grand Slam events are played over the best of five sets, all women's matches are played as the best of three sets. All matches since January 1, 2019 have been checked, but there are likely to be many more from earlier years which have not yet been recognised, especially as qualifying matches in ITF tournaments before that date would normally have been played over the best of three tie-break sets.
The longest match consisting of two standard sets and a match tie-break was played in the second qualifying round of a $25,000 ITF tournament in Darmstadt, Germany, on July 16, 2024. Sandra Samir defeated Denisa Glushkova 6âÂÂ7<sup>(1âÂÂ7)</sup>, 6âÂÂ3, [10âÂÂ8]. The official ITF live scoring data recorded the duration as three hours and 45 minutes. RankTennis recorded the same time and TNNS recorded one minute longer, but SofaScore recorded five minutes less. The official duration is one minute longer than that recorded for a match in the second qualifying round of a $25,000 ITF tournament in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on January 9, 2023 where Valentina Mutilba defeated Luciana Blatter 6âÂÂ7<sup>(7âÂÂ9)</sup>, 7âÂÂ6<sup>(12âÂÂ10)</sup>, [10âÂÂ7]. The official ITF live scoring data recorded the duration as three hours and 44 minutes, but SofaScore and TNNS both recorded three minutes less.