Longest Tennis Match Ever...

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Men's singles, first round

Nicolas Mahut and John Isner at Wimbledon: two bareknuckle pugilists

Has anyone ever seen anything to match the 10-hour epic for its sheer quality of weirdness?

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The referee Soren Friemel ends the day's proceedings in the epic men's singles match between John Isner, left, and Nicolas Mahut. Photograph: Alastair Grant/AP This is not a tennis match. It is a fight. It is a fight not far removed to what might have taken place on a patch of grass 200 years ago or so. And, because of their courage, it is a fight neither man can lose.

The Frenchman Nicolas Mahut and the American John Isner will fight to the finish in a first-round match at genteel Wimbledon, because that is what is in their DNA, no different to the bareknuckle pugilists of Georgian myth, no different, either, to something that resides deep in all of us.

The question that flickered through most minds of those in attendance and those watching on TV was not really who was the better player but what was driving them on. As it turned from absorbing to surreal and continued on towards unbelievable, their struggle took on a life of its own. Who had seen anything on a sporting field to match it for the sheer quality of its weirdness?

You have to ask, also, what is at stake? Certainly, it would be satisfying to progress to the second round of the world's premier grass-court event at the spiritual home of tennis. Yet neither combatant will be dreaming that fiercely. Their eyes are trained on each other, just as boxers cannot bare or afford to avert their gaze from an opponent who, in the thunderous flick of a fist, could extinguish all lights and ambition.

Mahut and Isner are – like Ali and Frazier, and like long-ago brutish prizefighters – eternally entwined now, whether they like it or not. The odds are, it is something they will cherish.

Their hostility is contained within the civilised discipline of tennis, with manners and etiquette mere stewards to the action. If there is hate, it is the sort that men have for other men who dare to challenge their manhood. And this is a very male engagement – not that women would not similarly be raised to such heights – but what has made us almost guarantees our responses to threat.

At the end, with the light fading but the spirit still burning brightly, Isner looked as near to despondency as he did at any minor crisis during the match. Mahut could not see. He, too, wanted to go on, he said. Isner, I would bet, did not believe him.

For all their mutuality, he had to keep the levels of antagonism high and Mahut had just pricked the balloon. Isner suspected, probably, that when they return today, the magic will have gone. It had sustained them both for 10 hours exactly, a feat of endurance and commitment neither will visit again, and that is why he was so deflated leaving the battlefield.

He recognised what was special about the contest. It was not just about who was going to win it but why they even bothered to do it in the first place. Because they are fighters.

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Somewhere around five hours into the final set of the longest tennis match ever seen in the professional game, with an increasingly sunburned crowd leaning on the metal barriers of court 18 for support, Sue Barker summed up the mood for TV viewers: "Is this match ever going to end?"

Apparently not, it seemed. Last night, France's Nicolas Mahut and John Isner from the US, two of the lesser known names on the men's singles circuit, remained deadlocked on two sets each and both with 59 games in the longest fifth set ever, of the longest tennis match ever.

It was Mahut who finally implored the officials to take the players off shortly after 9pm as he could no longer clearly see the ball. The match had lasted exactly 10 hours at close of play, according to official statistics, with the pair holding their serves for 118 games before the end. They had battled through more than seven hours alone, with one of the scoreboards giving up, forcing them to carry on with a blank screen.

Fans were happy they had brought a packed lunch, but some worried about the late trip home. "I'm glad I brought sandwiches with me - it's tiring just watching," said Mark Gerrard, 41, from Bournemouth, who had been there since 5pm. But spectators still chanted, "We want more", as they gave the players a standing ovation. "Nothing like this will happen again. Ever," vowed Isner as he left the court. "He was serving fantastic, I was serving fantastic. I would love to see the stats."

Even before the pair began warming up shortly after lunch yesterday they had already played out something of an epic, which ended on Tuesday evening tied at two sets each following, even then, 45 games of thunderous tennis. As the players dragged themselves across the court with increasingly leaden feet following a day in which temperatures reached 28 degrees, the TV commentators began to sound worried. "Something surely has to give?" Boris Becker asked.

Federer described the match as "absolutely amazing". "In a way, I wish I was them; in some ways I wish I wasn't them," he admitted. Andy Murray was stunned by the tussle. "This is why tennis is one of the toughest sports in the world, this will never ever be matched again," he Tweeted.

The winner is due on court for his second round match later today, presuming a conclusion is eventually reached. The loser will have to be consoled with a cheque for £11,250, and maybe immortality as a future Trivial Pursuit question.