Logistics Are Put to the Test at Wimbledon

By John Martin June 23, 2010 6:51 pm June 23, 2010 6:51 pm

WIMBLEDON, England –- The electronic scoreboard went haywire at 47-47 but the humans stood up pretty well for the longest match in tennis history.

Rotating roughly every 75 minutes, two teams of 14 linespeople and four groups of 28 ballboys and ballgirls moved on and off the court for all 7 hours 6 minutes, according to All England Lawn Tennis Club officials.

“There are no days off,” said a ballkids’ supervisor when asked if the youngest employees of the tournament would be given time to recover from their stint on the sidelines of tennis history.

“The scoreboard couldn’t cope with any more data,” said a press office employee who said he spoke to IBM programmers, who left the club after the match was concluded.

“It was only programmed to go to 47-47,” he said, “and they insisted it will be fixed by tomorrow.”

The scoreboard failure left Court 18 without a technological method of keeping track of the score, but the chair umpire, Mohammed Lahyani of Sweden, provided a running account of the match by microphone.

Late Wednesday, tournament officials revised the order of play for Thursday, scheduling the Isner-Mahut match on the same court, starting no earlier than 3:30 p.m.

Earlier, there was speculation that in view of the historic nature of their match, Isner and Mahut would be asked to play on a show court, seating more than the 782 spectators who can squeeze into Court 18’s seats, which include a raised grandstand.

A spokeswoman said that tournament officials did not consider whether to move the match to a show court so it could be viewed by the Queen.