• Top Tens: Epic sporting encounters

How long have you got?

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal played out the longest Wimbledon final in 2008 © Getty Images

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In honour of John Isner and Nicolas Mahut's unbelievable three-day marathon match at Wimbledon, this week's focus is on the top ten epic sporting encounters.

The best Wimbledon final ever?
Where better to start than with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal's enthralling 2008 Wimbledon final clash. While the final set lasted a mere 16 games in comparison to the 138 played out by Isner and Mahut, this treat of tantalisingly tense tennis saw two men at their absolute best attempting to make their own personal marks on history. Nadal, bidding to become the first man since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to win the French Open and Wimbledon titles back-to-back, missed two championship points in the fourth set as Federer, vying to win his sixth crown at the All England Club, took it to the wire. The Spaniard eventually prevailed to win his first Wimbledon title 6-4 6-4 6-7 (5) 6-7 (8) 9-7 in four hours 38 minutes, with the final shot being struck in near darkness on Centre Court at 9.15pm.

What are you doing tomorrow?
Six-time major champion Nick Faldo and Michael Campbell took match play golf to another level as they battled it out for 43 holes around the twists and turns of Wentworth during the 2002 World Match Play Championship. Their first-round encounter was suspended due to darkness after the pair had halved the sixth extra hole of their sudden-death play-off. By that point they had played 42 holes in nine hours and five minutes. "That was an honest day's work at the office, but I need a breather now," Faldo said after agreeing with his opponent to call it a day. Campbell, who would go on to win the 2005 US Open at Pinehurst, would get the better of Faldo the next morning by winning the first hole of the day.

The wrong rule book
On April 18 1981, the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings, two teams from the Triple-A International League, started what would prove to be the longest game in professional baseball history. The game, being played at Pawtucket's McCoy Stadium in Rhode Island, began on a Saturday and continued through the night and into the morning before finally being suspended. The contest should never have been allowed to last so long but, while most leagues have a curfew rule that would have suspended play, the rule book that the home plate umpire had that night did not contain one. As a result, play continued until the president of the league was finally contacted sometime after 3.00am. At 4.07am, with the 32nd inning completed, the game was stopped. At this point, there were 19 fans left in the seats, all of whom were given season passes to McCoy Stadium. For the record, the game resumed on June 23, with Pawtucket needing 18 minutes to settle the contest.

The timeless Test
When England and South Africa agreed that the fifth and final rubber of their 1939 Test series should be timeless, they surely never envisaged what was about to happen. The contest began in warm sunshine on Friday, March 3, 1939, and ended in gloom and rain on Tuesday evening, March 14. After 10 days of action in Durban, the match was abandoned as a draw as rain stopped play with England, at 654 for five, only 42 runs short of an incredible victory. On a track that favoured the batsman, it was the bowlers who suffered the most. A total of 5447 deliveries were sent down - the equivalent of nearly eight one-day matches by today's standards- and the new ball was taken 12 times. The England team, who were booked to leave Durban for Cape Town by night train on March 7, were forced to miss their final tour match against Western Province as play wore on. The Durban Test proved to be the nail in the coffin for infinite matches.

The scoreboard at the end of the Timeless Test © Getty Images

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Let's have another go
The 1979 FA Cup will always be fondly associated with the image of Alan Sunderland reeling away in joy after scoring Arsenals third goal in their 3-2 win over Manchester United in the final, but the eventual winners took their time in making it to that season's Wembley showpiece. Sunderland and Co. needed four replays - five matches in total - to make it past Third Division underdogs Sheffield Wednesday in the third round. The first match, on January 6, saw the sides draw 1-1 at Hillsborough, a scoreline that was repeated at Highbury three days later. The tie then moved to a neutral venue - Leicester's Filbert Street - where the Owls continued their resistance by claiming 2-2 and 3-3 draws, before Arsenal finally booked a place in the fourth round with a 2-0 win on January 22 - 16 days after the first match.

Jonny's final
England's route to World Cup glory in 2003 was never an easy one; particularly in the final. In the end, after 100 minutes of bruising and breath-taking rugby, it was the right-boot of Jonny Wilkinson that proved the difference. With the prospect of a drop-goal shoot-out looming large, England's No. 10 slotted a close-range drop kick between the posts 26 seconds from time to snuff out the Wallabies' brave defence of their crown. With victory, Clive Woodward's side became the first northern hemisphere side to claim the game's ultimate prize in what was arguably the greatest finale to the best ever World Cup.

The first British Grand Prix
The history of the British Grand Prix started back in 1926 when Henry Segrave organised the first event, after interest in the sport was raised following his win in the 1923 French Grand Prix and the Spanish equivalent a year later. The first race, held at Brooklands, was contested over 110 laps [287 miles] and would prove to be an epic experience for all involved. On an uncomfortably hot day, only three cars would finish as a mixture of the temperature and the race length took its toll. The French team of Robert Senechal and Louis Wagner won the race in just over four hours. The latter, fearing he might faint, was forced to stand in a bucket of cold water between driving stints, as the field dealt with conditions similar to, as a report in the I>Guardian put it, "the sensation of being baked alive."

Dennis Taylor came out on top in his marathon 1985 World Snooker Championship final against Steve Davis © Getty Images

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The 'black-ball' final
The brief but enthralling return to form of Steve Davis at this year's World Snooker Championship evoked memories of his former dominance. In 1985, Davis was the best player in the world and already a three-time world champion but in that year's Crucible final he lost out to Dennis Taylor in snooker's longest ever 35-frame match. An audience of 18.5 million people tuned in - a record, at the time, for the largest British audience for a sporting event - as Taylor overturned an 8-0 deficit to win his first world championship crown. The Ulsterman sunk the winning pot at 12.19am to seal an 18-17 win in 14 hours 50 minutes.

FA Cup drama of another kind
Tunbridge Wells and Littlehampton Town are not names immediately associated with football's record books but their FA Cup preliminary round match in 2005 made national headline news. After two tightly-fought stalemates, the tie came down to a penalty shoot-out. During the subsequent spot-kick lottery, there would be 43 attempts on goal - the longest shoot-out in European football history. In total, 12 players missed as Tunbridge made it through 16-15.

Boxing's longest bout
In 1893, long before the introduction of the 12-round format now used in boxing, Andy Bowen and Jack Burke fought out the longest fight in boxing history. The two Americans slugged it out for 110 rounds [7 hours 19 minutes] in New Orleans, before both deciding enough was enough. The unsympathetic referee called the fight a "no contest" as both fighters left the ring and no winner was declared.

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