The US Open is the home of the fifth-set tiebreak, a frantic sprint to the finish line to cap an otherwise grueling back-and-forth battle in the heat of the New York summer.
The final major of the season is the only Grand Slam event to use a breaker in the final set. In doing so, it provides an unparalleled climax to a match where fans hang on every single point.
Emotions run high toward the end of these encounters as the combatants try to find every last ounce of energy to propel them into the next round. In the end, these marathons are often decided by one or two points here or there – maybe a flash of brilliance, a brave volley or one last big serve drawing on adrenalin, guts and desire.
All of this is set against a backdrop of a capacity crowd rising and falling with every point, as these titanic struggles tend to draw fans from across the grounds as word of the pending tiebreak spreads.
In total, 26 men’s matches went the full five sets at the 2016 US Open, with a handful of those decided 7-6 in the fifth. Here are our three favorites:
John Isner def. Frances Tiafoe
Isner’s US Open hung by a thread for the majority of this three-hour, 27-minute first-round battle with fellow American and rising teen star Tiafoe. He lost the first two sets and he was two points away from crashing out of the tournament on its opening day in the third-set tiebreak. Even in the final set, Isner was down a break and faced the prospect of losing in the US Open's first round for the first time since 2008, with Tiafoe serving for the match at 5-3.
Still, the lanky North Carolina native found a way to outlast the 18-year-old, breaking back to even the match. He never trailed in the final-set tiebreak, winning four of the final five points to book his place in the second round in front of a standing room-only crowd inside the new Grandstand.
In the end, the first-ever men’s match played on the tournament’s newest show court saw Isner seize victory on his second match point to complete a 3-6, 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-3, 7-6(3) comeback.
It wasn’t Isner’s first fifth-set tiebreak win at the Open, either. He famously defeated another popular American, fifth-seeded Andy Roddick, 7-5, in the third round back in 2009. That time, however, Isner had squandered a two-sets lead and was pushed to the limit before finally upending the 2003 champ.
Match recap
Lucas Pouille def. Rafael Nadal
While the first two women’s matches inside Arthur Ashe Stadium on Day 7 were wrapped up in straight sets, fan favorite Nadal and breakout star Pouille ensured the middle Sunday crowd would be treated to arguably the best match of the tournament.
Few matches would rival this one for sheer excitement as Nadal twice rallied from a set down to send the fourth-round battle to a deciding set.
Nadal jumped out to an early break in the fifth set, but the 24th-seeded Frenchman strung together three consecutive games to make Nadal serve to stay in the tournament. A final-set breaker was fitting considering the closeness of the four-hour struggle, and it was Pouille who reeled off four straight points before the 14-time major champion countered with five of the following seven. A Nadal forehand error gave Pouille his fourth match point, which he wrapped up with a clean forehand winner before falling onto his back in a mixture of relief, excitement and exhaustion.
When the dust had settled, Pouille emerged with a 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(6) triumph.
It marked the second straight year of fifth-set heartbreak for the Spaniard, who let a two-set lead slip against enigmatic Italian Fabio Fognini in the round of 32 just 12 months earlier. Remarkably, it was Pouille’s third five-set victory in five days, following comebacks against Marco Chiudinelli in Round 2 and 15th-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut in Round 3.
Match recap
Paolo Lorenzi def. Gilles Simon
With a capacity of a little more than 1,500, Court 11 is the biggest of the non-stadium courts in Flushing Meadows and therefore a prime spot to get up close and personal with the game’s brightest stars.
By the time this second-round match had concluded, nobody was still sitting down.
Seeded 30th, Simon entered the contest as the favorite and made easy work of a 6-3 opening set. The 34-year-old journeyman from Rome dug his heels in claimed the next two sets, one in 45 minutes, the other in 50, before Simon won a fourth-set 80-minute tiebreak to send the match to a decider.
In the fifth set, Lorenzi served for the match at 5-4, squandering a pair of match points as Simon pushed toward a tiebreak.Considering there had been 19 breaks of serve in the match, including eight in a tense fourth set, it may have come as little surprise that the first four points of the fifth-set tiebreak went against serve. But while it was Lorenzi who let nerves get the better of him in the prior set, the unseeded Italian who was more composed when all the chips were in the middle of the table.
Trailing 3-2 in the breaker, Simon protected his serve to level the score at 3-3, but that would be the only point he would win on his serve and the final point he would win at the 2016 tournament. Lorenzi earned a mini break on the very next point, held serve on the next two points on his racquet and then earned a memorable victory with his fourth straight point of the tiebreak to seal a 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-7(1), 7-6(3) victory.
The 34-year-old Lorenzi, contesting his fifth US Open, earned a spot in the third round of the US Open with the upset – the first time he had been that deep at a Grand Slam in 22 major appearances.
