In one of last year’s Wimbledon men’s semifinal matches, South African Kevin Anderson and American John Isner played an epic fifth set, with Anderson winning 26-24 in six hours and 35 minutes. To no surprise, Anderson had little left in the tank in his first-ever Wimbledon final and lost in straight sets to Novak Djokovic.
Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com
That crazy set was part of the impetus for Wimbledon organizers to make one major change going forward: Any final set that reaches a score of 12-12 will then go immediately to the standard tiebreaker form. That applies to all singles and doubles matches on both the men’s and women’s sides. Probably a relief for Isner, who played the longest set in tennis history in the 2010 first round of Wimbledon, beating Nicolas Mahut an incredible 70-68 in the fifth.
This year’s version of Wimbledon begins Monday on the storied grass courts of the All England Club in London, the only Grand Slam played on grass. It’s also important to note that Wimbledon is the only one of the four Slams to not seed exactly according to ATP or WTA rankings. The tournament takes grass-court performance into account.