Australian Open Produces Epic 70-Shot Rally That Made Crowd Lose Its Mind

Australian Open logo on tennis ball

Getty Image


Tennis is just one of the many sports on the planet with a deceptively simple concept that can take decades to truly master. Sure, hitting a ball over a net and past your opponent is easy in theory, but actually managing to do that with regularity is no small feat.

Of course, it’s one thing to do that against a casual player, but the athletes who get paid to play tennis for a living are also tasked with analyzing every single move their opponent makes while making dozens (if not hundreds) of split-second decisions over the course of a typical match.

“Match” is an appropriate label for those showdowns when you consider professional tennis players are basically playing a more physically strenuous version of chess—one that usually requires them to think a few moves ahead while attempting to gain the upper hand on the person on the other side of the court.

While the vast majority of points are decided in four shots or less, I think most fans of the sport would agree there aren’t many moments that capture the magic of the game quite like the lengthy rallies that force competitors to reach deep down into their bag of tricks while attempting to outlast whoever keeps managing to hit the ball back at them.

Nothing highlights that reality quite like the veritable marathon Jason Kubler and Karen Khachanov found themselves involved in during their showdown at the Australian Open on Wednesday (a day that also saw Rafael Nadal withdraw from the tournament after succumbing to an injury in the middle of his match against Mackenzie McDonald).

Kubler found himself trailing Khachanov 5-4 in the second set after losing the first and had some serious motivation to secure a crucial game point after finding himself up 40-30.

He was able to do exactly that—although it took the two men a total of 70 shots to settle things over the course of an epic 90-second rally that understandably made the crowd inside John Cain Arena go absolutely bonkers when it wrapped up (Kubler won the set but ultimately lost the match).

The lengthy nature of that exchange still has nothing on the longest rally ever recorded in competitive play, as Reuters notes Jean Hepner and Vicky Nelson needed 29 minutes and a staggering 643 shots to decide a single point during a match in 1984.

Connor Toole avatar and headshot for BroBible
Connor Toole is the Deputy Editor at BroBible. He is a New England native who went to Boston College and currently resides in Brooklyn, NY. Frequently described as "freakishly tall," he once used his 6'10" frame to sneak in the NBA Draft and convince people he was a member of the Utah Jazz.