The longest match in French Open history lasted 6 hours and 33 minutes: Fabrice Santoro defeated Arnaud Clément 6-4, 6-3, 6-7, 3-6, 16-14 in the first round of the 2004 tournament. The all-French marathon was suspended for darkness and completed the following day, on May 25, 2004, with Santoro saving two match points before finally closing it out. Its 71 games were the most in any French Open match since tie-breaks were introduced at the tournament in 1973.
At the time, Santoro vs. Clément was not just a Roland-Garros record — it was the longest match in tennis history, beating the previous mark set by John McEnroe and Mats Wilander in a 1982 Davis Cup tie by 11 minutes. It held the record for the longest Grand Slam singles match until 2010, when John Isner beat Nicolas Mahut 70-68 in the fifth set at Wimbledon after 11 hours and 5 minutes. That famous Isner–Mahut epic happened on grass in London, not in Paris — at Roland-Garros, the Santoro–Clément match remains untouched at the top of the list.
The Five Longest Matches at Roland-Garros
| Rank | Year | Round | Match | Score | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2004 | 1st round | Fabrice Santoro d. Arnaud Clément | 6-4, 6-3, 6-7, 3-6, 16-14 | 6h 33m |
| 2 | 2020 | 1st round | Lorenzo Giustino d. Corentin Moutet | 0-6, 7-6(7), 7-6(3), 2-6, 18-16 | 6h 05m |
| 3 | 1998 | 3rd round | Àlex Corretja d. Hernán Gumy | 6-1, 5-7, 6-7, 7-5, 9-7 | 5h 31m |
| 4 | 2025 | Final | Carlos Alcaraz d. Jannik Sinner | 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(3), 7-6(10-2) | 5h 29m |
| 5 | 2023 | 2nd round | Daniel Altmaier d. Jannik Sinner | 6-7(0), 7-6(7), 1-6, 7-6(4), 7-5 | 5h 26m |
2004: Santoro vs. Clément, the Two-Day Epic
What made the record match so compelling was the clash of styles between two French veterans. Santoro — nicknamed "The Magician" for his two-handed slices, drop shots and improvised angles — dismantled the more orthodox baseline game of Clément point by point over two days. With no fifth-set tie-break in existence at the time, the deciding set simply kept going until Santoro edged it 16-14. Both men left the court as part of tournament folklore, proof that a first-round match can outlive many finals in the memory.
2020: Giustino vs. Moutet Comes Within 28 Minutes
The closest anyone has come to the record was in the strange, autumn-scheduled 2020 edition, when Italian qualifier Lorenzo Giustino beat Frenchman Corentin Moutet 0-6, 7-6(7), 7-6(3), 2-6, 18-16 in 6 hours and 5 minutes. The fifth set alone lasted around three hours, and the 18-16 deciding-set scoreline was a tournament record. Remarkably, Moutet actually won more points than Giustino — 242 to 217 — and still lost, one of the great statistical oddities in Grand Slam tennis.
2025: The Longest Final Ever Played in Paris
Marathons are usually a first-week phenomenon, which is what made the 2025 final so extraordinary. Carlos Alcaraz came back from two sets down against Jannik Sinner — saving three consecutive championship points along the way — to win 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(3), 7-6(10-2) in 5 hours and 29 minutes. It was the longest French Open final in history and the second-longest Grand Slam final ever, behind only the 2012 Australian Open final. Alcaraz became just the third man in the Open Era to win a major after facing championship points, joining Gastón Gaudio (2004 French Open) and Novak Djokovic (2019 Wimbledon). Sinner, for his part, features twice on the top-five list — he was also on the losing end of Daniel Altmaier's 5-hour, 26-minute upset in the second round in 2023.
Why the 2004 Record May Never Be Broken
Every match in the top five was decided by an extended fifth set — 16-14, 18-16, 9-7, 7-5 — and that is precisely the format that no longer exists. Since 2022, all four Grand Slams, including Roland-Garros, play a 10-point tie-break at 6-6 in the deciding set. A modern match simply cannot stretch to 16-14 in the fifth, which means Santoro and Clément's 6-hour, 33-minute record is effectively locked in forever. You can read exactly how the current format works in our guide to the French Open tie-break rules.
Clay still produces the longest average rallies and match times of any Grand Slam surface, though, and five-set drama remains very much alive: Alexander Zverev needed five sets to beat Flavio Cobolli 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-1 in the 2026 final. For the full picture of this year's tournament, see our French Open 2026 results and the updated list of current champions. And for more records and milestones from more than a century of tennis in Paris, explore our French Open history hub.
Statistics verified against official ATP/WTA and Roland-Garros records, July 2026.