The longest tennis match ever played, John Isner against Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon in 2010, was spread over three days. How many minutes of play did it last?

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Answer

About 665 minutes

The final set alone ended 70 games to 68, and the electronic scoreboard froze at 47 all because it had not been programmed to go any higher.

How to estimate it

Count games and multiply by time per game. The score was 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68, so the first four sets had 10 + 9 + 13 + 13 = 45 games and the fifth had 138: 183 games in all. A game between big servers, including changeovers, takes about 3.5 minutes. 183 × 3.5 = 640 minutes. The official duration was 665 minutes, just over 11 hours.

Source: ATP; Wimbledon

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