The origins of tennis can be traced back to 12th century handball in France, though the modern game developed and took its present form in the 1800s. The first official tournament was held at Wimbledon in 1877. The start of the Open Era of tennis in 1968, which saw amateurs and professionals competing at the same events for the first time, is another landmark in the evolution of the game. Regardless of how far one looks back, tennis is rich with history and memorable moments. That said, a few records are more likely to stand the test of time than others.
When it comes to tennis records that are unlikely to be broken any time soon, one should start with the longest tennis match ever held. The match took place in the first round of the 2010 Wimbledon Championships between American John Isner and Frenchman Nicolas Mahut. The contest took place over three days of play and lasted 11 hours and five minutes. Isner won the match by a score of 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68. The final set, which began on Day 2, endured for eight hours and 11 minutes, and would rank as the longest match of all time on its own.
Isner and Mahut set numerous records beyond the match length and total number of games. The two occupy the top two positions in various categories, such as most aces hit in a match or most consecutive holds in a match without a break of serve. In 2019, Wimbledon became the third grand slam tournament to implement a final set tiebreak rule, leaving the French Open as the only conceivable venue in which this record might be approached, however unlikely.
Of course, other tennis records have more to do with individual dominance, and no tennis season has been as dominant as Steffi Graf’s 1988 season. Graff not only won all four majors that year, a rare feat known as a calendar year grand slam, but also claimed a gold medal at the Summer Olympics in Seoul.
By winning the 1988 US Open, Graf became just the third player to achieve a calendar slam in the Open Era of tennis and just the fifth player ever to achieve the feat. By coupling this rare stretch of dominance with a quadrennial tournament like the Olympics, Graf established a legacy that will be extremely difficult for any player to match in the future.
When it comes to extended dominance, Graf’s season is potentially only rivaled by Rafael Nadal’s career performance at the French Open. In terms of singular records unlikely to be broken, Nadal has won the event 13 times. Excluding Nadal, no other player has won any other event, let alone a major tournament, more than 10 times. He is a perfect 13-0 in French Open finals and is the only player with at least 100 match wins at the event. In 2020, he won the event without dropping a set for the fourth time, breaking a record he shared with Bjorn Borg.
While some of Nadal’s numerous clay court and French Open titles may be matched one day, it will be a long time, if ever, before a player approaches 100 victories in Paris or lifts the La Coupe des Mousquetaires 13 times.
