June 22, 2010. Wimbledon The first round of the tennis tournament. The second day of the legendary duel between American John Isere and Frenchman Nicolas May. In the fifth set, on account 47:47 (!!!!) the scoreboard by the court went out. With a score of 50:50 (!!!!!!), the broadcast counter on the Wimbledon tournament website was reset to zero . They were not designed for such an outrage. Then many tennis fans have repeatedly asked the question: so how long does the tennis set last?
We deal with the terms
A tennis match is divided into sets and games. To win, you need to win at least two sets. Depending on the tournament regulations or a specific match, there may be three. In professional tournaments, as a rule, women need to win at least two, and men - three. In practice, tennis players rarely cost a minimum. Therefore, how long the set lasts in tennis, they are of little concern.
Win a set
In order to win a set (i.e. a game), you need to win at least six games (i.e. games). Moreover, with a score of 6: 6 games, a tie-break is assigned, in which 7 innings are played with a simple score. Whoever wins them more wins the set.
Win the game
In turn, in order to win the game, you need to win at least four innings. According to established tradition, 15 points are awarded for winning the first and second serve, and for the third - 10 and the fourth - 20. If during the game the score becomes 40:40, then the opponents continue to play until the difference in the won draws reaches two . The player leading in one serve is indicated on the scoreboard by the letter A, that is, “Advantage” - in Russian, “More”. If the leader wins another serve, then he wins the game and writes himself a point in the set. And if the opponent catches up with the leader, the score in the game again becomes 40:40, and everything starts all over again. This is the situation that most often raises the question of how long one set in tennis lasts.
Pretend
It is therefore easy to guess that in tennis the game is not limited by time frames, but goes to a certain number of points scored. That is why this set can last as long as you like.
You can, of course, estimate about how long a set lasts in tennis. As practice shows, a set lasts an average of 25-30 minutes, but in tennis there are many different stops: from timeouts to watching the ball hit the field. In addition, the draws are very long. The feed is given up to 25 seconds. By the way, we forgot to mention also the right of the server to make one mistake - to hit the net with the ball, and this is also the time. By the way, sets rarely end with a score of 6: 0. In fact, everything is very delayed and the match as a whole lasts, as a rule, about four hours. In general, no one can say exactly how long a set lasts in tennis.
Experienced
In reality, the conclusion about how long the set lasts in tennis was found on June 22, 23 and 24, 2010 in the first round match of the Wimbledon tournament, American John Isner and Frenchman Nicolas May. Their meeting lasted 11 hours 5 minutes! And with two breaks for an overnight stay. On the 22nd and 23rd to ascertain which of them is stronger, the approaching darkness prevented. However, what can we say about the match, if only one last, fifth, decisive set lasted 491 (!!!) minutes, that is, more than eight hours. This is longer than any entire match before! And also the "largest" in the number of games.
But it all began very innocently. The first set - 32 minutes and 6: 4 in favor of Isner. The second - 29 minutes and 6: 3 in favor of Mayu. But then went "ugliness." The third - 49 minutes and 7: 6 for May. Fourth - 64 minutes and 7: 6 after Isner.
The crown of the match was the fifth - 491 and 70:68 in favor of Isner. Note that it lasted for two days: with a score of 59:59, the rivals left for the second night. Surely thinking: "And how long does the set last in tennis ?!"
Even the scoreboard was not ready for such numbers. With a score of 47:47, it “fainted”, since it was the maximum possible score. By the way, bringing the scoreboard to “feelings” also added overall time to the record set.
In addition to the time record, unyielding rivals set up a bunch of various achievements in terms of the number of innings, the number of draws, and ... In general, a lot.
Unfortunately, for Isner, the victory turned out to be pyrrhic. In the next round, he became an easy prey (0: 6, 2: 6, 3: 6) to the non-star Dutchman, and in the doubles tournament he could not take part due to an injury caused by overwork. Mayu couldn’t help his partner in the first match of the tournament: the match turned out to be long again, and the French, in the first place, did not have enough strength.
Match Records Isner Mayu
Match time - 11 hours 5 minutes. Set time is 8 hours 11 minutes. The number of games is 183. The number of games per set is 138. The score in the game is 70:68. The total number of aces is 215. The number of aces from one tennis player is 112 (Isner - in the photo below). The number of raffles won by one tennis player is 502 (Izner).
Getting ready for a full day?
One prominent tennis observer immediately after the record match spoke out in the spirit that this could never happen again.
But you still know now how long a set in tennis can last, and when you go out on the court, be prepared for the fact that only one set can take you a full time, and the whole match a full week. After all, what happened once, maybe twice.