Isner v Mahut
The longest tennis match IN HISTORY is currently tied, 59 games all. Some comments from the Hacker News thread on the topic highlighted the hilarious commentary from the liveblog at the BBC, covering the match:
6pm: The score stands at 34-34. In order to stay upright and keep their strength, John Isner and Nicolas Mahut have now started eating members of the audience. They trudge back to the baseline, gnawing on thigh-bones and sucking intestines. They have decided that they will stay on Court 18 until every spectator is eaten. Only then, they say, will they consider ending their contest.
And then, disbelief:
7pm: What’s going on here? Once, long ago, I think that this was a tennis match. I believe it was part of a wider tennis tournament, somewhere in south-west London, and the winner of this match would then go on to face the winner of another match and, if he won that, the winner of another match. And so on until he reached the final and, fingers crossed, he won the title.
That, at least, is what this spectacle on Court 18 used to be; what it started out as. It’s not that anymore and hasn’t been for a few hours now. I’m not quite sure what it is, but it is long and it’s horrifying and it’s very long to boot. Is it death? I think it might be death.
42 games all.
Then, zombies again:
9.25pm: Last thoughts before I ring me a hearse. That was beyond tennis. I think it was even beyond survival, because there is a strong suggestion (soon to be confirmed by doctors) that John Isner actually expired at about the 20-20 mark, and Mahut went soon afterwards, and the remainder of the match was contested by Undead Zombies who ate the spectators during the change of ends (again, this is pending a police investigation).
Still, if you’re going to watch a pair of zombies go at each other for eleventy-billion hours, far into the night, it might as well be these zombies. They were incredible, astonishing, indefatigable. They fell over frequently but they never stayed down. My hat goes off to these zombies. Possibly my head goes off to them too.
It’s a crying shame that someone has to lose this match but hey-ho, that’s tennis. The historic duel between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut will resume tomorrow and play out to its conclusion. Possibly. Maybe they’ll just keep going into Friday and Saturday, Sunday and Monday; belting their aces and waiting for that angel to come and lead them home.
The great thing about the BBC commentary is that it’s exactly like checking in with your buddies at the local pub (bar, in the US’s case) and talking about the game. I think it really adds that sense of context that can be missing when it’s just broadcasters trying to appeal to a very large audience. It kinda serves the purpose of the weatherman — everyone can look up the radar picture and forecast on their own… but it’s nice to have somebody who knows the topic talk about it for a little while.
Oh, and once again I should have listened to Dan back in 2009 when he talked about the greatness of BBC liveblogging.
Comments
Dan McKeown +1
You’re welcome!
As a reminder, the World Cup is also going on at this moment, also with a live text feed. It is a little bit different these days with all of the twitter updates and other bloggers being linked to but still worth a read if you don’t have a live feed to watch the match (how I love smart phones!). Couple good quotes from the Denmark v. Japan one:
17:47 “Sorry, I’m just catching my breath. What a game that was at Ellis Park. Italy, defending champions and second most successful World Cup nation ever, are out of the World Cup following a sensational match against Slovakia that involved five goals, one shot off the line, one disallowed goal, 30 shots, seven bookings and a flood of Azzurri tears. It more than made up for a borefest between group winners Paraguay and New Zealand right? And you know what? We’re only halfway though the day’s match action. Man I love the World Cup. Please don’t ever end.”
19:26 “Stop. Anthem time.”