Cilic Trumps Querrey in Second-longest Match in Wimbledon History

Croatia’s Martin Cilic and American Sam Querrey made Wimbledon history on Saturday, June 30, by featuring in the second-longest match ever played at the event.

Umpire Mohammed Lahyani, who had also chaired the longest match, between Isner and Mahut, in 2010, must have been among the most relieved people when the match finally ended, with Cilic winning 7-6, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 17-15, in the encounter that lasted all of five hours and 31 minutes.

The win took 18th-seeded Cilic to the fourth round at the event, the second time he has achieved the feat, in his career. He is scheduled to clash with British number one, and world number four, Andy Murray, for a place in the quarter-finals.

When Cilic took the second set for a 2-0 lead, few would have imagined that he would let Querrey get any sort of foothold in the match. In the event, Querrey not only won the next two sets in tie-breakers but actually came close to winning. Cilic served at 5-4 in the deciding set but Querrey managed to stave off defeat by breaking his serve.

At 15 games all, in the fifth set, Cilic finally managed to get the crucial break, before going on to serve for the match. The highlight of the match was a brilliant rally at 30-30 in the penultimate game. Watch that rally in the following video. If you look carefully, at 1:59, you will see Sportingattitude.com owner Amit Shanker, better known to site visitors as Contactamipro, in the first row, holding a camera and standing next to his wife (who is in a pink top).

Tags: Croatia, Murray, umpire, Video

Category: Sports Videos, Tennis, Wimbledon