Wimble-dumb

Isner: battered then beaten.

WIMBLEDON IS BIG on traditions. But this week’s marathon match has me thinking it’s time for some changes. 

Most tennis fans loved the 11-hour, three-day epic between John Isner and Thiemo de Bakker. It was decided 70-68 in the fifth set – the longest match in professional tennis history. 

I don’t really get it. Maybe it’s because this endless battle was between two nobodies, and it was only the first round.

Or perhaps it’s the fact it left the victor, Isner, so destroyed that he could barely cope at his match the following day – he lost in straight sets and got knocked out of the tournament. “I’ve never been this exhausted,” he said afterward. 

What good is that for the game? As John Lloyd wrote in the Daily Mail the other day: 

“Imagine if that had been Andy Murray on court for 11 hours, or Roger Federer or (Rafael) Nadal? The tournament would then be dealing with the incalculable loss of one of the favourites instead of waving Isner from the premises not much more than a dozen hours after he had been celebrated as the Marathon Man of SW19.” 

Like Lloyd, I think the time has come for Wimbledon to institute a fifth set tiebreak. According to tournament rules, a tiebreak game is played if the score reaches 6–6 in any set except the fifth. They should change this, if only, as Lloyd puts it, to “prevent another man going from hero to zero, as Isner did.” 

How about using a tiebreak to decide fifth sets in qualifying rounds, then not have it in the final rounds when the competition really matters. 

I realize purists see this as sacrilege. But it’s not like everything is sacred at the All England Club. After all, in 2009 they installed a retractable roof at centre court. No one seemed too upset about ending the glorious tradition of rain-outs at Wimbledon. 

ryan@roadtostarrdom.com