CNN
—
The fans at the Australian Open were treated to a monster rally on Wednesdayone that thrilled them thereby.
It came in the game between home favorite Jason Kubler and No. 18 seed Karen Khachanov at the John Cain Arena.
Kubler narrowly lost the first set, but had a chance to break back against the Russian in the second. And so they started exchanging pictures.
Neither made a mistake and neither could reach a meaningful winner as the rally went on and on.
The tension in the stands was palpable as spectators were gripped by the two players who didn’t give each other an inch for nearly 90 seconds.
After such a great rally, it was only fitting that it ended in an anti-climax – a backhand from Kubler that cut the net and simply fell to the ground to win the point for the Australian, breaking Khachanov back and the crowd wild as the 70-shot rally came to an end.
“That’s the longest rally I think I’ve ever seen!” the commentators on Eurosport described it afterwards, calling it “incredible”.
It proved to be a catalyst for Kubler, who again broke serve in the second set to tie the match, but Khachanov eventually outlasted the 28-year-old to win 6-4 5-7 6-4 6-2 to take a set up for the third round. clash with Frances Tiafoe, semifinalist of the 2022 US Open.
Wednesday’s 70-shot rally wasn’t even an Australian Open record, however, with France’s Gilles Simon and Gaël Monfils having a 71-shot rally on the same field in the third round in 2013.
According to Reutersthe longest rally in a competitive match occurred in 1984 between Jean Hepner and Vicky Nelson sharing a 29-minute rally in Richmond, Virginia that ended with a total of 643 shots fired.
They were all a long way from the official world record for the longest tennis rally.
According to the Guinness World RecordsThe longest tennis rally was held on June 11, 2017 between Italian Simone Frediani and Daniele Pecci and consisted of no less than 51,283 shots.
The two set out to try for the record to “challenge themselves.” The attempt began at 6:23 a.m. and ended at 7 p.m., with both carrying backpacks filled with water to stay hydrated throughout the day.
