Olympic Men’s Singles Match Sets a Record

Written by: Staff on 1st August 2012

Olympic Men’s Singles Match Sets a Record

epa03329841 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France returns to Milos Raonic of Canada during the London 2012 Olympic Games Tennis competition in Wimbledon, Greater London, Britain, 31 July 2012. EPA/ANDY RAIN |

Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga wrote his name into the Olympic history books with a marathon victory over Canada’s Milos Raonic that will go down as the longest three sets confrontation to feature in the Games with the most drawn out ever concluding set.

The world no.6’s 6-3 3-6 25-23 second-round win lasted 3 hours and 56 minutes and the total of 66 games shattered the previous record of 48 when Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez beat Taylor Dent of the United States 6-4 2-6 16-14 to win a bronze medal at Athens in 2004.

Tsonga wasted three match points before winning the epic set, said: “It is good to break these two records. This is my way to write my name in history. It is hard to get through in the big tournaments. It’s good for my confidence, but not really good for my body.”

Tsonga now goes forward to meet Spain’s Feliciano Lopez in the third round and he added: “I dreamt about the Olympics when I was a kid. And now it came true. It’s maybe better than in my dream. For me, to represent my country is something big. They give me a lot, so I try to give back.”

Raonic was pleased to be in the record books even if, like Nicolas Mahut in his famous epic defeat by John Isner two years ago, he was on the wrong end of it. The 21-year-old said: Maybe next time I will ask my opponent, ˜Do you want to play a long match, and let’s take it seriously from 26-26 so I can get on the right side of things.”

The big serving Canadian has come close to beating a number of top players, notably Roger Federer on three occasions this season, and he said: “I’ve been knocking on the door. Hopefully next time around I can kick it down.”

However the new record may only last a day, with the doubles match between Czech pair Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek and Brazil’s Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares called off at 18-18 in the third set because of darkness.

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: British tennis news, Canadian tennis news, French tennis news, Jo Wilfried Tsonga, milos raonic, Olympic history, Olympic tennis news, Sports, Tennis News