They call it a tie break because you are supposed to “break a tie”. This did not really happen in Florida where Benjamin Balleret and Guillaume Couillard were able to finish their tiebreaker only at the 70th point!
This happened in a Future event between two players from Monaco. The previous record was of 38 points and it was reached 3 times by Ivanisevic, Borg and Roddick.
The match ended 7-6 (36-34), 6-1 for Balleret… It is understandable that Couillard imploded after losing such an incredible tiebreak…
Even if the ITF posted on Twitter “We haven’t been able to find a tie-break that went longer than this,”…. unfortunately it seems that the record will not be officialized as there wasn’t a formal chair umpire.
Balleret, 29 years-old, reached a career high ranking od 204 and he played Federer in the third round of Monaco ATP Master in 2006 where he lost 6-3 6-2. Couillard, 37, is currently unranked and he has played the Davis Cup for Monaco this year against Morocco.
