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Wimbledon Announces Major Change: Tiebreaker to Cut Off Marathon Matches

The All-England Club will implement the rule change in 2019.

Wimbledon announced Friday a major change to its annual tennis tournament. Beginning in 2019, men, women, mixed doubles, and juniors competitors will play a tiebreaker if the score reaches 12-12 in the final set. The new rule replaces a system that has led to marathon matches in recent years. “Our view was that the time had come to introduce a tie-break method for matches that had not reached their natural conclusion at a reasonable point during the deciding set,” said All-England Club chairman Philip Brook. A press release states the All-England Club studied match data from the past 20 years and solicited feedback from players and officials. U.S. player John Isner found himself battling it out against Kevin Anderson on Wimbledon’s Centre Court for six hours this past summer in the court’s longest match ever.