Isner and Mahut win ESPY award for marathon match

John Isner and Nicolas Mahut picked up the prize for Best Record Breaking Performance at the prestigious Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards ceremony in Los Angeles last night.

Their marathon match on court 18 at Wimbledon went to 70-68 in the fifth set, taking 11 hours and five minutes to complete.

Isner accepted the ESPY trophy and was quick to pay tribute to his opponent.

“First off, I’ve got to say congrats to my opponent Nicolas,” said Isner. “He was an absolute warrior that day.

“You can’t fathom a match going 70-68 in the fifth, but somehow we did it. It was a pleasure to share the court with him that day.”

Meanwhile Serena Williams collected the award for Best Female Tennis Player after beating off competition from sister Venus and Belgium’s Kim Clijsters.

Clijsters received the Best Comeback Athlete award for her remarkable and victorious return to tennis at the US Open last year, and Venus won the Phenomenal Woman of the Year award.

Alpine ski racer and Olympic gold-medallist Lindsey Vonn picked up the award for Best Female Athlete.