John Isner
April 26, 1985 — Greensboro, North Carolina
John Robert Isner is a retired American professional tennis player who achieved a career-high world ranking of No. 8, won the Masters 1000 title at the 2018 Miami Open, and is most famously associated with the longest tennis match in history — the Isner–Mahut match at Wimbledon 2010, which lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes across three days.
The Big Server
Born on April 26, 1985 in Greensboro, North Carolina, Isner grew up playing tennis and eventually attended the University of Georgia, where he was a three-time All-American. He turned professional in 2007. At 6 feet 10 inches, Isner possesses one of the most powerful serves in the history of the sport — he has hit a recorded serve over 150 mph and has aced opponents thousands of times across his career. His playing style is built around the serve as weapon: hold serve without difficulty, look for opportunities on returns, and trust that the serve will win tiebreaks.
The Match at Wimbledon
On June 22–24, 2010, Isner played Nicolas Mahut in the first round of Wimbledon. The match lasted 11 hours, 5 minutes across three days, with the final set alone lasting 8 hours and 11 minutes and ending 70–68 in Isner's favor. The scoreline — 6–4, 3–6, 6–7, 7–6, 70–68 — is the most remarkable in the history of tennis. Both players served with such consistency in the final set that neither could be broken for eight hours. Isner thanked Mahut at the net and then lost in the second round the following day, having barely recovered.
Did You Know?
In the final set of the Isner–Mahut match, the scoreboard at Court 18 ran out of space to show the score — when it reached 47–47, the electronic board displayed "47" on both sides and could not update further. The Wimbledon groundstaff had to clear Court 18 of spectators overnight as both players went to sleep before returning the following day to continue a set that neither could win. The match was covered by news media worldwide as a human endurance story as much as a tennis contest.
Career and Legacy
Isner won 16 ATP titles across his career, reached two Grand Slam semifinals (Wimbledon 2018 and US Open 2018 in the same year), and was a key member of United States Davis Cup teams over more than a decade. He retired from professional tennis in September 2023 at the US Open, playing his final match at the tournament with which he is most associated. He is remembered for serving excellence, for longevity, and for being part of a match so extraordinary that it required a rule change — Wimbledon now has a final-set tiebreak at 12–12 — that the sport had resisted for 140 years.