US hopes at the French Open were extinguished on Thursday as marathon man John Isner was once again involved in an epic duel, the fourth longest in Grand Slam history, which this time he lost. The giant Isner found himself as the last American standing out of eight starters after qualifier Jesse Levine had earlier gone down 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 to Milos Raonic of Canada. But after what turned out to be, at five hours 41 minutes, the second longest match in French Open history and the fourth longest in Grand Slam history, Isner lost 6-7 (2/7), 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 18-16 to French wildcard Paul-Henri Mathieu.
Mathieu finally entered the third round by converting his seventh match point, Isner hitting a forehand wide. The American hit 41 aces, but had 98 unforced errors. Ironically it was against another Frenchman, Nicolas Mahut, that Isner played the longest match in history at Wimbledon in 2010 when he took 11 hours and five minutes, spread over three days, to win 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7/9), 7-6 (7/3), 70-68. At no point, Isner insisted did his mind travel back nearly two years ago to the match with Mahut which has gone down in the annals of sporting history as one of the greatest athletic contests of all time.
