Collieson: Isner-Mahut got into a mental rut

James Collieson can have some sympathy for marathon tennis stars James Isner and Nicolas Mahut.

American Isner beat Frenchmen Mahut in a match that stretched over three days and took 11 hours and five minutes to play before the Yank won it 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68. It set the record as the longest tennis match in history.

Collieson’s longest day on the tennis court took over four hours for a three set match. When it was over he had to get an IV to deal with the dehydration.

“It was in Bolivia. I was playing in a tournament that was experimenting new rules. One tournament we’d play with bigger tennis balls, then the next tournament there would be no advantage. This tournament they were using Wimbledon rules so we were playing out the third set as we didn’t play five (sets).

“The third set was 17-15 against a guy from Puerto Rico and it was very humid.

“During one of the points — I used to have a tendency of my right hand cramping where my fingers would get locked back — I threw the racket from my right hand to my left hand and I hit the ball left-handed and during the same point my opponent’s calf started cramping. We both started cramping within seconds of each other. It was like crippled tennis.

“After the match I had a full body cramp, which I’ve only had one and it was awful. I dove and hit the ground and every muscle in my body cramped.

“It was pretty brutal afterwards as I had to have IVs put in.”

Collieson said he believes the Isner-Mahut match went on for as long as it did because both players had a mentality of only giving 100 per cent on their serves.

He added: “I felt like they got into a mental block where they were relying so much on their serve and relaxing so much on the return of the serve that both of their brains were in sync with each other to keep that pattern going. They just got stuck in a rut rather than them playing great tennis.

“No one wanted to win. It almost became like a ballet there for the longest time.

“Commentators said the servers seemed to be getting most of the luck, but there seemed to be a psychological thing going on with them when they got to 15, 20-all.”

Would he call it one of the great matches of all time?

“It was one of the most remarkable tennis matches of all time. I wouldn’t call it one of the greatest. The last two Wimbledon finals have been great. The best one was Nadal-Federer two years ago.”