On Five-Setters in Early Rounds

One of the most storied and memorable Grand Slam matches is a first-round match that wasn’t even on a stadium court.

At Wimbledon in 2010, John Isner and Nicolas Mahut played for a total of 11 hours and five minutes over the course of three days as both players attempted to advance to the second round. The match went to five sets, and the final scoreline was 6-4 3-6 6-7 7-6 70-68, with Isner winning the match. It is undeniably one of the most iconic matches in tennis history.

Since then, Wimbledon and the other Grand Slams have standardized the 10-point tiebreak once fifth sets reach 6-6. There will never be another Isner-Mahut match, but what there will be are long, chaotic five-setters on the first few days of a Grand Slam. And as much as early three-set blowouts at Slams can feel tedious, the best-of-five format creates intriguing matches right from the first serve.

There are, of course, downsides. Five-setters in a packed schedule can push that court’s slate of matches well into the night and at times into the early morning, and they can take a toll on the players. But there is good in early five-setters too, and that can come in a variety of ways.

At Wimbledon in 2025, defending champion Carlos Alcaraz played a surprising five-set match in the first round against Fabio Fognini. Alcaraz won with a final scoreline of 7-5 6-7 7-5 2-6 6-1 and went on to make the final. After pushing Alcaraz to five sets at Wimbledon, Fognini promptly announced his retirement and said the match was “the perfect way to say goodbye to this sport.”

Had the match ended after the third set, it still would have been an impressive showing from Fognini. But it being a five-setter was enough for him to end his entire tennis career with that match.

For Fognini an early five-set match was an ending, but it can be a beginning as well. In the second round of the 2025 Australian Open, 19-year-old qualifier Learner Tien upset fifth seed and defending finalist Daniil Medvedev in a late-night five-setter. The match ended at 3 A.M. — not an uncommon occurrence for Medvedev — in a fifth-set tiebreak, with a final scoreline of 6-3 7-6 6-7 1-6 7-6. The match lasted nearly five hours, and it jumpstarted a breakout year for Tien, who finished 2025 in the top 30.

Tien would have won in straight sets had the match been best-of-three, on paper the upset would have been the same, and it would have saved both Tien and Medvedev hours of grueling tennis. But Tien pulling through after five sets against one of the best players in the world was what truly announced him at the top of the game, and the nature of the match made the upset all the more impactful.

Five-setters don’t automatically translate to good tennis. They aren’t even possible on the women’s side, but that doesn’t diminish the quality of women’s tennis. Oftentimes five-setters are messy, especially in the first few rounds. But a five-set match can create something special, and for every bombastic Grand Slam final that ends in a fifth set, there are early five-setters as well, ranging from historic stadiums to low-capacity outer courts. Many of the matches that go to five sets early in a Grand Slam may just be a small blip in the draw when the tournament comes to a close, but that doesn’t matter in the moments they’re being played.

John Isner and Nicolas Mahut had no impact on the outcome of Wimbledon. Neither did Fabio Fognini’s retirement. Learner Tien’s breakout run didn’t change who lifted the trophy at the Australian Open. But those early five-setters, and countless others, are still a unique part of tennis.