WIMBLEDON, England — Let’s start with the score: 7-6 (6), 6-7 (5), 6-7 (9) 6-4, 26-24.
And the time: 6 hours 36 minutes.
Tennis matches generally do not carry on quite like this — unless they involve John Isner. His ultramarathon loss to Kevin Anderson, by that score and over all those hours, in the Wimbledon semifinals on Friday amounted to the longest Grand Slam singles semifinal in tennis history.
The longest match ever was Isner’s victory at Wimbledon in 2010 over Nicolas Mahut, 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (3), 70-68, in the first round. That one took three days to complete and officially lasted 11 hours 5 minutes.