Longest Olympic doubles tennis set (number of games)

Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares (Brazil) beat Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) 1-6, 6-4, 24-22 in the second round of the Olympic men's doubles competition at Wimbledon, London, UK, on 1 August 2012. The 46-game third set, which lasted 3 hr 11 min, eclipsed both the male and female records (36 and 38 games, respectively) for a set of men's or women's doubles at the Olympic Games. The previous record for most games in an Olympic set in men's doubles: 36 in the semi-final match between Simon Aspelin/Thomas Johansson (Sweden) and Arnaud Clement/Michael Llodra (France) at Beijing 2008, a match won by the Swedes 6-7, 6-4, 17-19 on 15 August 2008. The previous (and overall) record for most games in an Olympic set in women's doubles: 38 in the first round match between Gabriela Sabatini/Mercedes Paz (Argentina) and Jill Hetherington/Carling Bassett-Seguso (Canada) at Seoul 1988, a match won by the Canadians 7-6, 5-7, 20-18. The Melo/Soares-Berdych/Stepanek match, staged on Wimbledon’s Court 16, was also the longest ever Olympic men’s doubles match for the number of games played (see separate record). The total of 63 games beat the previous record of 59, set during the Aspelin/Johansson-Clement/Llodra match from Beijing 2008 referred to above.