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wimbledon
You all may remember a Sports Night episode about a tennis match that wouldn't end.
Dana Whittaker would have had kittens with this Isner-Mahut match. These guys played four sets on Tuesday before play was postponed due to darkness; they resumed yesterday and by the time play was again postponed due to darkness, the fifth set - which you have to win by two games - was tied at 59. That is not a typo. The fifth set is now officially longer than the previous longest match on record. As I'm typing this the liveblog over at the Post tells me that Isner is up 66-65. He's had the lead the whole time I've been paying attention, which is to say they're tied, he takes a one-game lead, and Mahut gets it right back, because nobody's breaking anybody's serve here. Fifteen minutes ago the Post pointed out that this is still a first-round match, while other players have already advanced to the third round. (Now it's tied on 66.)
This, right here? is the tennis match that wouldn't end. Difference being, of course, that these guys are well-matched (seeded something like 18th and 23rd), so it's not like the random guy nobody's ever heard of giving Pete Sampras a run for his money. It's two guys nobody's ever heard of.
Isner's up 67-66. Maybe it's time for a rule change: first guy to a hundred games wins.
[eta: Isner did it: 70-68 just a few minutes ago. I'm impressed. I thought the thing was going to be decided by one guy falling down dead.]
JEREMY (voice overs): Dear Louise. Here's what's going on right now. CSC is carrying the Continental Challenge live. Sampras is playing a first round match against a guy named Alberto Fedrigotti, who's ranked 178th in the world tennis standings and who Sampras should have easily finished off by now. ... Sampras won the first two sets in a walk and was up four-love in the third. The crowd filed out to the parking lot a half-hour ago. The match was over. Except nobody told Alberto Fedrigotti. ... He'd battled back and was up a break, and to Sampras' astonishment, was serving for the set. We were still assuming Sampras would break his serve and we'd be able to get the show under way. ... Now the thing is, we're supposed to go on the air at eleven, and if Fedrigotti holds his serve and forces a new set, that means we've got to hold for at least forty-five minutes while Sampras makes this guy say 'uncle'. And nobody here likes to hold. ... In the control room, Dana was resigned to going up three or four minutes late to allow Sampras to close out the match, but she just wasn't emotionally prepared for the thing to get thrown to a fourth set.(emphasis is mine.)
DANA: Can you believe this guy is doing this to me?
JEREMY: I don't think it's personal, Dana.
...
JEREMY (voice overs): I didn't see the forehand passing shot that Fedrigotti made to force the new set. Neither did Sampras. ... This match, which was supposed to be a walk, was heading into its fourth hour.
Dana Whittaker would have had kittens with this Isner-Mahut match. These guys played four sets on Tuesday before play was postponed due to darkness; they resumed yesterday and by the time play was again postponed due to darkness, the fifth set - which you have to win by two games - was tied at 59. That is not a typo. The fifth set is now officially longer than the previous longest match on record. As I'm typing this the liveblog over at the Post tells me that Isner is up 66-65. He's had the lead the whole time I've been paying attention, which is to say they're tied, he takes a one-game lead, and Mahut gets it right back, because nobody's breaking anybody's serve here. Fifteen minutes ago the Post pointed out that this is still a first-round match, while other players have already advanced to the third round. (Now it's tied on 66.)
This, right here? is the tennis match that wouldn't end. Difference being, of course, that these guys are well-matched (seeded something like 18th and 23rd), so it's not like the random guy nobody's ever heard of giving Pete Sampras a run for his money. It's two guys nobody's ever heard of.
Isner's up 67-66. Maybe it's time for a rule change: first guy to a hundred games wins.
[eta: Isner did it: 70-68 just a few minutes ago. I'm impressed. I thought the thing was going to be decided by one guy falling down dead.]
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... I wonder why I don't have any Sports Night icons.
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(Honestly, I kvell at any mention of SN, no matter how oblique. . .)