New location for sequel to John Isner and Nicolas Mahut epic

IT TAKES just ten seconds to read the 33 words printed on a new, oval plaque mounted outside Wimbledon's Court 18 to commemorate the longest ever tennis match, which took place at the All England Club a year ago.

It is a typically understated acknowledgement by Wimbledon organisers to the feat achieved by John Isner and Nicolas Mahut - but then no amount of words could sum up an act of extraordinary human endurance that spanned three days and lasted 11 hours and five minutes over five sets.

Today, those two same gladiators will return for a re-match after they were shocked to be drawn together for their first-round clash. "Freakish", "astonishing", "unbelievable", "mind-boggling", "bizarre" are just some of the words competitors used when Isner and Mahut were drawn together again for this year's championships - the same words that were used to describe their first-round encounter last June that hypnotised a global audience of billions. Going into today's encounter, American Isner summed up the sentiments of the two players best by saying: "It's weird and it's cruel."

There had been suggestions organisers may put the match back on Court 18 but when the order of play was released last night it was slated last on Court Three. Earlier, Mahut, who plunged into depression for three months after losing the 183-game match 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68, had said he would rather not return to scene as "it will be impossible for me not to think about last year's match".

A year ago, Mahut served the first ball at 6.13pm on Tuesday 22 June. The "never-ending match" finally reached its conclusion at 4.48pm on Thursday 24 June. The fifth set alone lasted eight hours 11 minutes and was 98 minutes longer than the previous longest grand slam match. It broke the records for the longest set, most games in a set (138), most games in a match (183), most aces in a match by one player (Isner 113) and total aces (216).