The 9 Grand Slams with the most five-set matches: Wimbledon 2024 breaks long-standing Open Era record
Wimbledon 2024 has set a new record for most five-set matches played at a Grand Slam with still a couple of matches to go in this year’s edition.
The record for most five-set encounters at a major used to be 35 and that milestone has stood for more than four decades, but it was equalled earlier this year at the Australian Open and now Wimbledon 2024 has gone past it.
Grand Slams With The Most Five-Setters
33 Five-Set Matches
1992 Roland Garros
An incredible 20 first-round matches went the distance at the 1992 French Open, but the five-setters dried up during the latter stages of the tournament with only one match from the fourth round onwards going the distance.
1994 Wimbledon
Pete Sampras won Wimbledon 1994 and he dropped only one set while the rest of the challengers were made to work hard. Andre Agassi played three five-setters before losing in the fourth round and yes, he went down in five.
But Bryan Shelton (Ben Shelton’s father) was the joint five-set MVP with Agassi as he also played three.
2001 Roland Garros
Fifth seed Pete Sampras and eighth seed Pat Rafter were among a host of players to go down in five sets in the opening round as 19 matches went the distance.
2010 Wimbledon
The 2010 Wimbledon edition gave us the most epic five-setter as John Isner and Nicolas Mahut played forever to complete their record-breaking match. Of course, it went the distance as Isner won 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7-9), 7-6 (7-3), 70-68 after 11 hours and five minutes.
Eleven of the second-round matches went to five-setters, but not a single match from the quarters onwards went the distance as Rafael Nadal was the last man standing.
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34 Five-Set Matches
1969 Wimbledon
The Wimbledon record for most five-setters has stood for 55 years as it was set only one year after the Open Era began.
Rod Laver played two five-setters en route to the title – which was the third leg of his incredible Calendar Grand Slam.
Fifteen of the first-round matches went the distance and 10 in the second round.
2004 US Open
The 2004 US Open came close to the all-time record two decades ago.
Nikolay Davydenko played 14 out of a possible 15 sets in the first three rounds before he went down in straight sets against Lleyton Hewitt in the fourth round.
Fifth seed Tim Henman reached the quarter-final and he played 19 out of 20 sets in the first four rounds before losing in four sets.
35 Five-Setters
1983 US Open
The US Open has held the record for most five-setters at a Grand Slam since 1983.
Eighteen of the first-round matches went the distance and American Vytautas Gerulaitis kicked off his campaign with three consecutive five-setters as he lost in the third round.
Third seed Jimmy Connors won the title and he was one of the freshest players as none of his matches went the distance with two going to five sets.
2024 Australian Open
Unsurprisingly the final of the 2024 Australian Open went to five sets as Jannik Sinner came from two sets down to beat Daniil Medvedev.
Medvedev also played five sets against Alexander Zverev in the semi-final, Hubert Hurkacz in the quarter-final, Nuno Borges in the fourth round and Emil Ruusuvuori in the second round. He played 31 out of a possible 35 sets and spent more than 24 hours on court.
Alexander Zverev himself played three five-setters along with Adrian Mannarino.
36 Five-Setters
2024 Wimbledon
Wimbledon 2024 surpassed the previous record of 35 with Daniil Medvedev’s five-set win over world No 1 Jannik Sinner in the quarter-final the magical No 36.
Spare a thought for Ben Shelton as his first three matches at the tournament all went the distance for a complete set of 15 sets played.
It also meant there have been a lot of two-set comeback victories with that figure up to 10 by the end of Day 10.