The world's longest tennis match finally ended on Thursday when John Isner overpowered fellow record-breaker Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon.
The American eventually edged the unprecedented battle of wills by winning the final set of their three-day encounter 70-68.
Isner, who hit 112 aces during 11 hours and five minutes of unforgettable first-round action, described his opponent as an ‘absolute warrior’ after securing the first break of serve since the second set.
After 20 games on a packed Court 18 today, Isner emerged with a 6-4 3-6 6-7 7-6 70-68 success.
On any other day at Wimbledon, Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga's five-set victory over Alexandr Dolgopolov would have been described as an epic.
But, in the shadow of Isner and Mahut's extraordinary encounter, the 10th seed's 6-4 6-4 5-7 5-7 10-8 triumph seemed tame in comparison.
However, Tsonga, an Australian Open semi-finalist this year, had to dig deep to overcome the rising Ukrainian star, who was making only his second grand slam appearance.
Andy Murray had a straightforward progression to the third round, beating Finn Jarkko Nieminen in straight sets in front of the Queen.
The Scot, who bowed to the monarch before and after the match, continued his impressive start to his Wimbledon campaign by winning 6-3 6-4 6-2.
But his next opponent, 26th seed Gilles Simon, had a far more leisurely route after Illya Marchenko pulled out of their scheduled meeting with a shoulder injury.
Simon feels he is under no pressure against Murray and will relish the atmosphere of playing in front of a partisan crowd - buoyed by the memory of his semi-final victory over Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals of the Madrid Masters in 2008.
‘The strong crowd is not a problem,’ the Frenchman said. ‘I played Rafa in the semis in Madrid and the crowd was not for me, so it will be the same.’
‘Nadal was number one and was playing amazing tennis in 2008. And I won that one.’
But Simon failed in the Madrid final to Murray in Spain and added: ‘I lost against him when I was playing my best tennis, so this time I don't know.’
Sixth seed Robin Soderling continued his impressive start to the competition with another straight-sets victory.
The French Open finalist beat Spain's Marcel Granollers 7-5 6-1 6-4 in the second round to cement his status as a possible contender for the title.
The Swede will now face Brazil's Thomaz Bellucci, who won two of three tie-breaks against Martin Fischer before taking the fourth set 6-2.
German Tobias Kamke will face Tsonga after beating Italy's Andreas Seppi in four sets, while 32nd seed Julien Benneteau recovered from a shaky start to beat German Andreas Beck in four sets.
