Wimbledon 2010: Epic halted at 59-59 in fifth set

John Isner and Nicolas Mahut tore up the record books as their epic first-round contest at Wimbledon became the longest in tennis history.

The match was locked at 59-59 in the final set after 10 hours of play when it was suspended because of bad light.

The decision meant that, incredibly, the contest would go into a third day, having been called off at two sets all on Tuesday for the same reason.

It will resume on Court 18 on Thursday after two other singles matches.

The final set, which began shortly after 1400 BST on Wednesday and was still going seven hours later when the sun went down, is already longer than any match ever played.

Isner, with 98, and Mahut (95) have also both smashed the previous record for the most aces, the 78 set by Ivo Karlovic in a Davis Cup tie in 2009.

The previous longest match was at the French Open in 2004, when Fabrice Santoro beat Arnaud Clement after six hours and 35 minutes.

The longest at Wimbledon had been the famous battle in the days before tie-breaks between Pancho Gonzales and Charlie Pasarell in 1969, which took five hours 12 minutes and finished 22-24 1-6 16-14 6-3 11-9 to Gonzales.

There was no indication of the drama that was about to unfold when Isner and Mahut resumed on Tuesday afternoon locked at two sets all.

But fans quickly crammed into court 18 - capacity 782 - as word spread about the historic contest and every possible vantage point outside was taken.

Mahut, from France, had his first break points of the entire set at 50-50, but Isner, 25, dug deep into his reserves to save both.

The 6ft 9in American had two match points himself at 33-32 and another at 59-58, all of which Mahut managed to fend off.

Towards the end, the umpire's voice was going, rallies had become collectors' items and the scoreboard was broken because it could not cope with the alien numbers.

Just after 2110 BST, Mahut complained that he was having difficulty seeing the ball and the decision was taken to suspend play.