Unlike other sports, tennis matches don’t end when a certain time limit is reached. Grand slam matches for men are played as best of 5 sets and may sometimes take up to 5 hours or more.

Over the years, Grand Slams have tried to add tiebreaks in the fifth as a means to end long matches. Before tiebreaks in the fifth set, the winner had to have a 2-game advantage in the final set.

At the 2010 Wimbledon championships, John Isner beat Nicolas Mahut 6–4, 3–6, 6–7^(7–9), 7–6^(7–3), 70–68 in a first-round match. It was the longest match in tennis history. The two players played 183 games in total and the match lasted 8 hours and 11 minutes. The match lasted more than 2 days because the play was suspended due to lack of light.

Fifth Set Tiebreak Rules At Grand Slams

In 2022, all four grand slams agreed to normalize tiebreak rules. Previously, each grand slam had its own rules the fifth set tiebreak, which confused fans.

For all four grand slams – Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open, the following rules apply.

• Tiebreak will be played at 6-6 in the fifth set
• The tiebreak will be a 10-point tiebreak. The first player to win 10 points with a margin  of two points wins the tiebreak and hence the match.

The Grand Slam Board considers this tiebreak rule change a trial and will review it after a year. If the results are satisfactory, the change will be made permanent.

Novak Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil are looking to rejoin the ATP Player Council after their newly-formed breakaway group Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) failed to get momentum.

That’s a bizarre twist in the 2020 tennis season which saw the number of tournaments played reduced and player prize money slashed across the board. With fans not allowed at the stadiums in most countries, tournaments have been struggling financially.

Djokovic and Pospisil left the ATP Player Council to start PTPA. Though the PTPA sounded like a great idea when it was announced and had good support from players, it wasn’t clear how the new group would achieve its objectives. Djokovic and Pospisil never laid out their plans. They just said the new group will work to represent players’ interests better.

Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Andy Murray opposed the new group. They felt that having another player association will be distracting at a time when players need to be united to fight for their interests.

ATP Player Council has 12 members. Members include four members from within the top 50 singles rankings, two players ranked between 51 and 100 in singles, two top 100 doubles players, two at-large members, one alumni member, and one coach.

Kevin Anderson currently serves as President of the Council.  Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Murray,  Felix Auger-Aliassime, and John Millman also serve as members.

The new player council starts on January 1, 2021, and votes must be cast by end of December.