Arnaud Clement prefers Roger Federer's records. His own, as one half of the longest-ever match at the French Open (against Fabrice Santoro in 2004) and now as part of the equal-second-longest match at Wimbledon (on Wednesday and Thursday against Rainer Schuettler) are rather less satisfying.
Clement held a match point and played for five hours and 12 minutes in three stints before losing 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (7-9), 8-6 in a quarter-final contest that seemed it would never end. Schuettler's prize was last night's maiden Wimbledon semi-final against Rafael Nadal, who had a full day off after humbling Andy Murray the previous night. As if Nadal needed any extra help.
Darkness caused the first postponement, then rain intervened twice, the second time at 6-6 in the fifth set and deuce. For minutes played, it matched the famous 1969 marathon between Charlie Pasarell and Pancho Gonzalez. At the end of this one, on Court One between two of the game's lesser names, some nice words were shared, but not too many.
"It's not about the words - it's just in the eyes, the respect," said Clement. "You can see it in the eyes. In a few words, it's tough. Maybe we can talk about this in a few weeks. But just after the match, we cannot stay 15 minutes on the court, Yeah, good first set....
"Honestly, we have a lot of respect. Honestly, I'm happy for him, because (he's) a very good guy. And that's it."
With former champions Boris Becker and Michael Stich, Schuettler became just the third German semi-finalist at Wimbledon in the Open era. If he was the only non-major winner into the last four, then he would forget neither the occasion nor the unusual circumstances. The oscillating match was, he said, "very, very strange".
It left the 32-year-old planning a massage and an early night before fronting up against Nadal, the tour's fittest player and one of it's most intimidating. So unexpected had the unseeded German's Wimbledon success been that he had looked no further than his second round against James Blake.
By last Saturday, Schuettler had withdrawn from the Challenger tournament in Spain he had scheduled for this week. "I said, 'I'm sorry, I can not go. Then I said I go a few days in the mountains in Switzerland, spend some time there, just get away from everything because I'm playing next week in Stuttgart on clay. But, yeah, I'm still here, so it feels good."
It was still special, but less so, for 31-year-old Clement, another former Australian Open finalist who had his best chance to reach the last four at Wimbledon, but fell just short. "When you lost a match like this you don't really care about 'yeah, it's the longest match ever," said Clement, recalling Roland Garros specifically. "It's an interesting record. The record of Federer is a little bit more interesting."