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What happened to John Isner for the first time in his career after his epic 11 hour win over Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon

Photo by Alastair Grant-Pool/Getty Images
Photo by Alastair Grant-Pool/Getty Images
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Tennis fans will never forget the epic Wimbledon clash between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut, which is still commemorated to this day.

Wimbledon has returned to the tennis calendar, with qualifying now underway for the ATP and WTA main draws at SW19.

The Grand Slam is certain to produce many twists and turns before crowning its champions, but there is one record that simply will never be broken.

Isner and Mahut played out the longest tennis match in history at the tournament in 2010, having been drawn to face each other in round one.

After three days of tennis, the American finally defeated the Frenchman 6–4, 3–6, 6–7(7–9), 7–6(7–3), 70–68.

John Isner and Nicolas Mahut at the net after playing the longest match in Grand Slam history.
Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images

What happened to John Isner for the first time after Wimbledon epic vs Nicolas Mahut

The pair battled it out on Court 18 at Wimbledon for 11 hours and five minutes, with 23rd seed Isner eventually getting the better of qualifier Mahut.

Isner thinks he and Mahut served really well in the epic encounter, which saw both players hit over 100 aces each.

READ MORE: John Isner now ranks where Carlos Alcaraz’s win over Jannik Sinner sits in the best matches ever, ‘I’m changing my tune’

The former finished the match with a tally of 113, with the latter losing despite hitting 103 aces throughout the intense battle.

However, ace machine Isner failed to repeat such heroics in round two that year, where he fell to Thiemo de Bakker.

Understandably exhausted both physically and mentally, the American lost 6-0, 6-3, 6-2 to the Dutchman.

The loser failed to serve a single ace in the entire match, which fittingly represents the only ever match where he served zero aces.

2023 US Open - Day 4
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Where does John Isner rank on the ATP Tour all-time aces list?

At 6’10”, Isner has unsurprisingly gone down as one of the best servers in the history of both men’s and women’s tennis.

He won 16 ATP Tour titles throughout his career, with his stunning ace ability often crucial to those victories.

READ MORE: Joao Fonseca claims current ATP player has the greatest serve of all time in tennis and he’s not even ranked in the top 30

Mahut’s fellow Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard is the current star in that area, leading the way for average aces per match on the ATP Tour.

His figure of 17.0 places him at the very top of the pile, with Isner’s fellow American Reilly Opelka second on 16.0.

Day Twelve: The Championships - Wimbledon 2018
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Jakub Mensik (12.9) and Quentin Halys (12.7) occupy spots three and four respectively, with Halle champion Alexander Bublik (12.2) completing the current top five.

But in terms of the all-time list, star server Ivo Karlovic leads the way with 19.8 average aces per match, with Isner following in second place with 18.7.

RankPlayerAcesMatches
1John Isner14,470772
2Ivo Karlovic13,728694
3Roger Federer11,4781462
4Feliciano Lopez10,261976
5Goran Ivanisevic10,237731
6Andy Roddick9,074776
7Sam Querrey8,879694
8Pete Sampras8,858792
9Milos Raonic8,445542
10Marin Cilic8,177877
Most ATP Tour aces (ATP Tour stats)

The situation does, however, change slightly when it comes to the most aces hit on the ATP Tour, with Isner topping the pile.

The American fired down a phenomenal 14,470 aces from his 772 matches, with Karlovic in second this time with a tally of 13,728 from 694 matches.