As we turn from Wimbledon to the awkward week on clay and the wind up to the US Open, let’s look back at some of the greatest men’s matches in Wimbledon history. These are the greatest and most iconic matches in the history of the most important and iconic tournament in tennis.
The metric that I created, Clutch Factor, evaluates the amount of pressure on each point of the match. So, adding that value up for each point is a good measure of how exciting a match is. At the sharp end of the rankings are many of what are widely considered the greatest matches of all time. The five matches that I will be discussing are the three highest overall totals, the highest on a per-point basis, and a recent classic.
Between Two Eras: Lleyton Hewitt def. David Nalbandian, 6-1 6-3 6-2, 2002 Gentlemen’s Singles Final
Between this match and Carlos Alcaraz’s famous victory over Novak Djokovic (more on that later), every Wimbledon men’s champion was Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, or Andy Murray. In the eight years before Goran Ivenisevic’s 2001 title, Pete Sampras won seven Wimbledon titles. But in 2002, Nadal had just turned 16 years old, Djokovic and Murray were barely 15, Ivanisevic was out due to injury, and the tournament itself was a bloodbath, with only two of the top 16 seeds reaching the quarterfinal stage, including the first-round knockout of Federer and the second-round exits of legends like Sampras, Marat Safin, and Andre Agassi. This unique set of circumstances opened the draw up for top seed Lleyton Hewitt and 28-seed David Nalbandian, playing for the first time at Wimbledon, to face off.
Judging simply by the scoreboard, the Aussie swept aside the Argentine without much of a sweat. But while they played only 24 games, they were covered by 168 points, an average of 7 points per game, and the pressure per point in this match was higher than any other match in Wimbledon history. Lleyton Hewitt won a significant number of big points, with the second-highest Clutch Factor Per Point of any player in a Wimbledon final since 1970 and the highest in a final since 1975. But Nalbandian was no slouch, keeping the extended games going and himself placing 10th among Wimbledon finalists in Clutch Factor since 1970. In fact, players with a Clutch Factor as high as Nalbandian’s at Wimbledon have won at a nearly 74% rate. So, while this match may seem like a blowout on the scoreboard, it is a lesson in what can happen when you win the right points.
Rafael Nadal def. Roger Federer, 6-4 6-4 6-7(5) 6-7(8) 9-7, 2008 Gentlemen’s Singles Final
Between the 2002 final and this match, six years later, Roger Federer did not lose a match at the All-England Club. In any conversation about the best tennis matches ever played, the 2008 final is the point of comparison if anyone wants to bring up any other match. This match pitted the best grass court player in the history of tennis against the best clay court player in the history of tennis. It was their third consecutive Wimbledon final against each other, played just over a month after their third consecutive Roland Garros final against each other. Between the pair, Federer and Nadal had won every Grand Slam bar one since Roland Garros 2005, and they would go on to win all but one through the 2010 US Open. These were two of the greatest to ever do it matching up at the absolute peak of their powers, and the level on the day met that billing. Nadal’s victory was his first Wimbledon title, making him just the third man in the Open Era to complete the “Channel Slam,” winning both Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the same year. Federer would go on to replicate the feat the following year, and Nadal would repeat it the year after that.
Every game in the match was incredibly close. In the fifth set alone, 7 of the 16 games went to deuce. The break at 7-7 came on the fourth break point of the game. Until 2019, this match was the longest Wimbledon final by time in the history of The Championships. The tension that was always palpable in the match combined with the near completion of a comeback from down two sets to love to bring this match to the third highest Total Excitement in Wimbledon history and the highest with fewer than 50 games in the 5th set. Don’t worry – those marathons are coming.
The Unbreakable Record: John Isner def. Nicolas Mahut, 6-4 3-6 6-7(7) 7-6(3) 70-68, 2010 Gentlemen’s Singles First Round
3 days. 11 hours and 5 minutes. 183 games. 980 points. 216 aces. 168 consecutive holds of serve. This match was the match to end all matches. Isner-Mahut was suspended for darkness on its first day after the fourth set. It was suspended for darkness on its second day at 59-59 in the fifth set. And finally, the match came to its merciful end after over an hour of play on its third day. The list of superlatives for the insanity of this match is never-ending. That 70-68 number is so unbelievable that the scoreboard was not programmed to go above 47. The patch that allowed the scoreboard to work properly would have broken again had either player reached 73.
We can add total Clutch Factor for a single player (both first and second place) and therefore Total Excitement, to the list of records smashed by this impossible contest. Their total individual Clutch Factors were 77.9 for Isner and 76.9 for Mahut. Third place is at 52.9. That one is John Isner, too, but we’ll come back to that match soon. Isner-Mahut’s Total Excitement of 154.8 is the only one to reach even 100.
Because the Davis Cup stopped playing five-set matches and all four Grand Slams have gone to fifth-set tiebreakers, these records will never be broken. And that’s probably a good thing. Isner lost his next match in 75 minutes. Mahut fell into a three-month depression after the match and suffered through back pain the whole time. But it was a moment (well, a lot of moments) in history that will stand the test of time.
Sleep vs Sanity: Kevin Anderson def. John Isner, 7-6(6) 6-7(5) 6-7(9) 6-4 26-24, 2018 Gentlemen’s Singles Semifinal
Isner-Mahut didn’t really move the needle on the fifth-set tiebreaker debate. But the 2018 semifinals, which place 2nd and 5th in Total Excitement in Wimbledon history and are the two longest semifinals by time in Wimbledon history, sealed it. As of 2019, Wimbledon implemented tiebreakers at 12-12 in the fifth set because of the situation created by the length of those matches. This match, between the Illinois Fighting Illini’s Anderson and the Georgia Bulldogs’ Isner, was the first semifinal of the day. It lasted 6 hours and 36 minutes, pushing the second semifinal, between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, deep into the night. That match, which Djokovic won 10-8 in the fifth set, ran into one of Wimbledon’s most unique traditions: the curfew. The AELTC, in a deal with its home in London’s SW19 district, halts any play for the day at 11 pm. This match between Isner and Anderson, the second longest match in Wimbledon history, created an environment in which the natural and very delicate pattern of the second week of Wimbledon was disturbed. That disturbance in a marquee moment forced Wimbledon to finally do something about its never-ending fifth set problem.
Unfortunately, this match is known more for its legacy than its on-court level. While the match had a lot of pressure in it, the tennis itself was a slog. Anderson and Isner did not play one of the greatest tennis matches of all time. Nor did they play such an outlier that it will live on in immortality. But they did play an incredibly important match. And for that, it deserves to be recognized.
The Rise of the “Baby GOAT”: Carlos Alcaraz def. Novak Djokovic, 1-6 7-6(6) 6-1 3-6 6-4, 2023 Gentlemen’s Singles Final
The 2002 Wimbledon final was a serious transitional moment. It was wedged between Pete Sampras and Roger Federer’s legendary runs at Wimbledon. On July 16, 2023, Carlos Alcaraz, who was not even a fetus when Hewitt overcame Nalbandian, toppled Novak Djokovic’s historic run in SW19. Djokovic’s Clutch Factor Per Point in the match was slightly higher than his opponent’s, and coincidentally, it happened to fall very close to that of Nalbandian in the 2002 final. But in the second set tiebreaker and for a moment in the fifth set, Djokovic blinked. He missed shots that he would typically make, handing opportunity after opportunity to the precocious 20-year-old. Alcaraz, a lifelong Roger Federer fan, stood between Djokovic and tying two of Roger Federer’s most important records, his 8 Wimbledon men’s titles and his 5 consecutive Wimbledon titles, a record that he shares with Bjorn Borg. And the Spanish six-footer stood tall.
Each player had a set where their level dropped – the first for Alcaraz and the third for Djokovic, though the fifth game of that third set was among the all-time greatest games. Djokovic’s uncharacteristic mistakes handed control of the second set tiebreaker to Alcaraz, allowing him to squeak out of the set. The fourth was tighter, but Djokovic was still better. When it came to the fifth, however, Djokovic surrendered an early break and Alcaraz held up under the relentless pressure that characterizes Novak Djokovic’s tennis. Overall, the match’s level was incredibly high. Both played a fantastic match for nearly five hours. It was an incredible display of tennis and an instant classic.
With the help of Clutch Factor, I have identified five of the greatest and most important matches in the history of the tournament. To me, nothing beats the 2008 final. But, recency bias be damned, the 2023 final is next, and it would have been very close had it not been for the drops in level in the first and third sets. Then comes Isner-Mahut, a match so legendary that its accolades are very hard to wrap your head around. The 2002 final comes after that, being a very strange, competitive blowout that is difficult to find anything on because it has been wildly overshadowed in our collective memory by a final between the Williams sisters. And last on this list of legendary matches is Isner-Anderson. While the two are very good players and the match was incredibly important to the history of Wimbledon, their match is remembered more for being a massive time suck than anything that happened on the court.
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