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Tsonga Edges Raonic in Longest Olympic Match in History

31 July 2012 21:53 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Franceâ€™s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated Milos Raonic of Canada in the longest match in Olympic history on Tuesday, APA reports quoting RIA Novosti.

The players spent three hours and 57 minutes on the court, crushing Fernando Gonzalez and Taylor Dent’s record, set in 2004, by 32 minutes.

The final score was 6-3, 3-6, 25-23.

The epic third set came about after the fifth seed Tsonga broke the first serve of Raonic to take the first, with the Canadian world No. 23 doing the same in the second.

The previous record for the longest Olympic set was beaten by 10 games as Tsonga, 27, secured victory in the 48th game.

Tsonga will face either Spainâ€™s Feliciano Lopez or ninth seed Juan Monaco of Argentina in round three.

Elsewhere, Russiaâ€™s Nikolay Davydenko was knocked out by Japanâ€™s Kei Nishikori of Japan 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.

Nishikori, ranked 17 in the world, will encounter either Spainâ€™s David Ferrer or Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia in the next round.