By Chris Oddo | Sunday, March 8, 2015
Argentina's Leonardo Mayer converted his 11th match point to emerge victorious over Joao Souza in the longest Davis Cup singles match of all-time.
Photo Source: Davis Cup.
After failing to convert on his first 10 match points, Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer made good on his 11th to close the books on the longest Davis Cup singles match of all-time.
Mayer’s 7-6(4), 7-6(5), 5-7, 5-7, 15-13 victory over Brazil's Joao Souza eclipses the previous record, which was set by John McEnroe and Mats Wilander at 6:22 in 1982 (McEnroe won that battle, in the era before the Davis Cup had incorporated the tiebreak, 9-7, 6-2, 15-17, 3-6, 8-6).
Mayer and Souza’s battle lasted 21 minutes longer at 6:43, and propelled Argentina into a deciding 5th rubber with Brazil in Buenos Aires.
The victory brought Mayer to tears (we can only imagine what the loss is doing to Souza, who played a total of 11 hours and 40 minutes in splitting his two singles rubbers this weekend), but it put a big smile on the face of Juan Martin del Potro, who reportedly moved his flight to Indian Wells back to stay behind and cheer on his team.
After Mayer and Souza’s epic, Federico Delbonis of Argentina and Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil took the court to play the decisive fifth rubber of the tie between neighboring nations, but they aren’t expected to go for long, as the Tecnopolis in Buenos Aires does not have lights.
Update: Delbonis took the first set, 6-3, and play has been suspended for the day.