Isner and Mathieu beat French Open record of games played

PARIS (Reuters) - American John Isner and local favourite Paul-Henri Mathieu broke a French Open record of most games played when they started the 72nd game of their second-round match on Thursday.

They were tied at two sets all and Mathieu leading 15-14 in the fifth set, bettering the mark shared by four matches since 1973, when tiebreaks were introduced.

The all time record at Roland Garros was set in 1957 with 83 games played.

Isner holds the overall all time record of games played (183) when he beat France's Nicolas Mahut 6-4 3-6 6-7 7-6 70-68 at Wimbledon in 2010 in 11 hours and five minutes in the longest professional tennis match played.

(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Pritha Sarkar)