Nadal‘s latest epic was not even his longest match in this format, while Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic both feature among the top five.
Interestingly, the four longest men’s best-of-three contests were all won by the player who lost the opening set, and two took place in 2024.
Two of the matches were at the 2012 London Olympics, where players had to win by two clear games in the third set as there was no tiebreak.
Here, we look at the five longest ATP matches played in the best-of-three set format since 1991 — when the ATP started recording match times.
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Longest best-of-three set ATP matches
1. Roger Federer d. Juan Martin del Potro 3-6, 7-6(5), 19-17 in 2012 Olympics SFs — four hours and 26 minutes
Federer and Juan Martin del Potro faced off in the last four of the tennis event at the 2012 London Olympics, which was staged on the grass courts of Wimbledon’s All England Club.
The pair split the first two sets, which featured only a single break, as the tight encounter went to a decider where serving continued to dominate.
Federer broke the big Argentine for the first time to go up 10-9 in the third, but he lost his serve to love when attempting to close out the match.
The Swiss then earned the decisive break at 17-17 and finally prevailed after a gruelling final set that featured three sets worth of tennis.
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2. Rafael Nadal d. Novak Djokovic 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(9) in 2009 Madrid SFs — four hours and three minutes
Nadal and Djokovic contested the longest best-of-three set ATP match where a tiebreak is used in the deciding set in the semi-finals of the 2009 Madrid Open.
In the first edition of the ATP Masters 1000 event played on clay, the thrilling and highly physical battle was decided by a final set tiebreak after Djokovic had led 3-1 in the third.
In an incredible conclusion to the last four clash, Nadal saved three match points in the tiebreak to triumph in one of the best matches of the pair’s rivalry.
3. Rafael Nadal d. Mariano Navone 6-7(2), 7-5, 7-5 in 2024 Bastad QFs — four hours
A 38-year-old Nadal met 23-year-old Argentine Mariano Navone in the last eight of the 2024 Swedish Open in Bastad, a clay-court ATP 250 tournament.
The Spaniard fought back from a 1-4 deficit in the first set before losing it in a tiebreak, but clinched the second set to level the match, despite seeing a 3-0, double break lead slip away.
In the decider, Nadal battled from 0-2 down to earn a 5-2 advantage, only to fail to serve the match out twice. However, the tennis great got the job done at the third attempt to hold off the world No 36 in a brutal contest.
4. Juncheng Shang d. Corentin Moutet 6-7(9), 6-2, 7-6(10) in 2024 Madrid 1R — three hours and 59 minutes
Juncheng Shang and Corentin Moutet faced off in the opening round of the 2024 Madrid Masters and the duo played out arguably the match of the tournament.
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