Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat Canadian Milos Raonic in the longest tennis match in Olympic history on Tuesday, 6-3, 3-6, 25-23 in a nearly four hour second-round match.
The previous longest set played in the Olympics was 38 games, set in women’s doubles during the 1988 Games when Carling Bassett-Seguso and Jill Hetherington of Canada topped Mercedes Paz and Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina 7-6, 5-7, 20-18.
Tsonga won the match on what may have been the most exciting point of the day in which he fell down, scrambled up and ended the point at the net. Just look where he was at one time during this point - which he won!
As with any match this length the numbers are staggering - 74 winners for Raonic and 60 for Tsonga. Tsonga will next meet the winner of Spain’s Feliciano Lopez and Argentina’s Juan Monaco and one can only imagine, be very tired. Elsewhere in men’s tennis Lleyton Hewitt of Australia upset Maric Cilic of Croatia 6-4, 7-5 and will advance to take on Novak Djokovic who dismantled Andy Roddick earlier.
In the women’s bracket Russia’s Maria Sharapova beat Britain’s Laura Robson 7-6, 6-3. Sharapova didn’t look her best, but it was enough to get the job done. She will face German Sabrine Lisicki, who defeated Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 in a tougher than expected match.
Also on Tuesday Germany’s Angelique Kerber breezed past Timea Babos of Hungary 6-1, 6-1 setting up a third-round match with Venus Williams. Williams and Kerber will face off in women’s doubles later on Tuesday, Williams with her sister Serena and Kerber with Lisicki.
For more on the Olympics, check out SB Nation's London 2012 Olympics Hub
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