In the year 2018 some long and exhausting matches were played on the WTA-Tour. Dominika Cibulkova and Simona Halep held it especially long on the course.
Three hours and 45 minutes. That’s how long the longest game on the WTA tour in 2018 lasted. The protagonists of the epic battle: Simona Halep and Lauren Davis.
The third round match at the Australian Open was of course over three sets and should be the third longest match ever in Melbourne. In the end, the world number one Halep was the lucky winner and won 6:4, 2:6 and 16:14.
Halep played his way to the finals after the marathon match and had to complete more long matches on the way there. In the semi-final against Angelique Kerber it was a 9:7 in set three. In the final Halep lost to Caroline Wozniacki from Denmark 4:6 in the deciding round.
Dominika Cibulkova from Slovakia has played several such matches in the past season. Domi” fought against Taiwanese fighter Hsieh Su-Wei for 3:19 hours at the US Open and won 7:6, 4:6 and 6:4. Cibulkova also collected two points because she came back too late from a ten-minute heat break.
Cibulkova described the match as one of her top three exhausting matches in her career. But that’s not all: In the final of the WTA tournament in Strasbourg, the 29-year-old lost to the Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7:6 (5), 6:7 (3) and 6:7 (6). The two finalists were on the course for 3:36 hours.