LONDON: Australian John Peers and Finn Henri Kontinen made a small slice of Wimbledon history when they won the first match decided by a tiebreak at 12-12 in the deciding set on Tuesday.
The men’s doubles eighth seeds beat 12th-seeded American Rajeev Ram and Britain’s Joe Salisbury 7-6(2) 6-4 3-6 4-6 13-12(2) in a third-round match lasting four hours 29 minutes.
Wimbledon abandoned the tradition of playing deciding sets to their natural two-clear games conclusion after last year’s tournament in which Kevin Anderson and John Isner played the longest men’s singles semi-final ever at the tournament.
Anderson won 26-24 in the deciding set but the match played havoc with the final weekend schedule and left South African Anderson exhausted before losing to Novak Djokovic in the final.