Record late night in tennis: Zverev wins at 4.55 in the morning

What was initially a relatively innocuous first round of the Acapulco tournament or, in any case, a day in which Alexander Zverev played with fire and was not far from being burned, ended up becoming a historic late night for tennis.

The German, number three in the world, recovered and ended the resistance of American Jason Brooksby, defeated 3-6, 7-6(10), 6-2.

He thus saved an elimination that would have prevented him from defending the title obtained last year.

So far everything normal, beyond the rush.

However, when Zverev fired one last shot and the rival returned too long,

, the clock read 4:55 in the morning, local time, which makes the duel the later that has never ended in the history of the racket.

Then, in the stands of the new venue that hosts the Mexican tournament (Pista Estadio) there were only a few daring left who defied the night and who, by checking their mobile phones, made sure that they had witnessed an extraordinary event.

Until now, the latest meeting was the one between the Australian Lleyton Hewitt and the Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis at the 2008 Australian Open 14 years ago, when the latter raised the white flag in the third round (4-6 7-5 7 -5 6-7 (4) and 6-3) and the electronic of the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne marked 4:34.

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Tennis, once again, uncovers its most absurd face, a unique defect in sport that, however, the organizers of the tournaments continue without correcting, the days becoming more and more dilated and the scenario several times of Martian situations.

You know when it starts, but never when it ends.

sessions

abound and normalize.

As a background, the televisions and the twine.

In Acapulco the heat and humidity are alleged, and the objective of preserving the health of the tennis players;

For this reason, they transmit, the evening session has been scheduled for this edition starting at 6:00 p.m.

An apparently reasonable schedule, until everything coincides: three matches, the three tied and the three to three sets.

Result, a mess.

REMARKABLE 😧@AlexZverev defeats Brooksby 3-6 7-6 6-2 in 3 hours 19 minutes at 4.55am in Acapulco - the latest finish in tennis history!#AMT2022 pic.twitter.com/yn7l3RUaQE

– Tennis TV (@TennisTV) February 22, 2022

Before Zverev and Brooksby intervened (around 1:30), John Isner and Fernando Verdasco had met in the first instance (7-5, 6-7(7) and 7-6(3) in favor of the former, after 3h 13m), and then Stefan Kozlov and Grigor Dimitrov (7-6(8), 5-7 and 6-3, after 3h 21m) jumped on the court.

Finally, Zverev required 3h 19m to finish the American.

“I am happy to have won”, explained the Hamburger to those present.

“I don't know how Jason feels.

I imagine it's difficult, but at the same time he must be happy to be part of tennis history.

It was incredible”, added the winner, who will face his compatriot Peter Gojowczyk in the next round.

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Now, then, the

of the irrational is headed by the Zverev-Brooksby of Acapulco (4.55), followed by the Hewitt-Baghdatis of Australia (4.34) and then by the doubles between Querrey/Sock-Fognini/Bolelli of the Davis Cup of 2019 (4.04), the Andreas Seppi-Bobby Reynolds of the Australian Open of 2007 (3.34), the Benjamin Becker-Jiri Novak of the Tokyo tournament in 2006 (3.24) and the Rafael Nadal-Pablo Cuevas of Rio de Janeiro in 2015 (3.18).

Three years ago, Garbiñe Muguruza and Britain's Johanna Konta finished rallying in Melbourne at 3:12 in the morning.

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