Guinness world record in endurance tennis now official!
The longest marathon tennis game (single) in the world was contested by Friedrich Nowak and Karl Straßberger - this has now been confirmed by Guinness World Records. The two Styrians have thus officially broken the previous world record set by two Germans in 2017.
by p.m
last edit:
May 03, 2023, 10:41 am
“It was a second marathon, namely a submission marathon. But now it's official: Our record in endurance tennis has been a Guinness World Record since April 24, 2023. This is the icing on the cake of our already successful campaign,” says Karl Straßberger. And Friedrich Nowak adds: "We managed the submission process with a similar endurance as our marathon tennis over almost 81 hours. Despite all the hardships, the match was more fun for us. It ended 79-79 – a tie in sets.”
The Guinness World Record certificate has already been sent by post. In digital form there is information about the performance of the two Styrians: "The longest marathon playing tennis (singles) is 80 hr 48 min, and was achieved by Karl Straßberger and Friedrich Nowak (both Austria), in Langenwang, Austria, from 11 to 14 August 2022". With almost 81 hours of continuous tennis, the two Styrians set and clearly surpassed the previous Guinness World Record of the Germans Christian Masurenko and Dennis Heitmann. This was "only" 79 hours and 9 minutes.
Lengthy record submission
Nowak and Straßberger began applying for entry in the Guinness Book of Records soon after their recovery period, although they had a whole year to do so. Since the GWR set of rules is demanding, the formal requirements were high and the time required was large: referees, witnesses, breaks, score - all success criteria were formally logged and collected in a complex manner. The last formal signature was already made in November 2022 and the submission seemed to be finalized. However, the technology did not play along.
Friedrich Nowak: “There always had to be two independent witnesses on site and two overall witnesses, namely lawyers, who confirmed the attempt after the action. Then we were asked to digitize the documents in a thick folder. And the transfer of the match video was a challenge in itself in addition to the partnership management of our group of companies.”
Karl Straßberger specifies: “First we uploaded the video with a data size of three terabytes to a server – that took three weeks. Since this link was not accepted, we had to split the video footage into 150 individual videos to ensure transmission."
The evaluation, examination and positive confirmation of the world record attempt by the Official World Record Association and Guinness World Records TM (GWR) then took place quickly.
Four-day record campaign
Review: On August 11, 2022, at seven in the morning, Friedrich "Fritz" Nowak and Karl Straßberger opened the historic match according to ATP rules at TV Schwöbing in Langenwang. In 2017, the Germans Christian Masurenko and Dennis Heitmann showed over 79 hours and 9 minutes that a world record of this dimension is possible. This performance had to be surpassed while at the same time collecting donations for inclusion in mass sport.
After four days of long-term events and long-term tennis, the time had come on Sunday, August 14, at 2:09 p.m.: The two had reached the previous Guinness World Record in marathon tennis and surpassed it by around 100 minutes. From the playing time of 8 hours and 50 minutes, two minutes "rest break" were deducted by Guinness World Records - therefore the official Guinness World Record is now 8 hours and 48 minutes.
Nowak and Straßberger, who are friends, business partners, sports partners and big cousins, played 1,475 games day and night and took three longer breaks of around 50 minutes each. 5 minutes break per hour were allowed; but these were mostly bundled in order to be able to sleep for at least a few minutes at a time. The physical and mental strains were particularly noticeable on the last day: some serve attempts were made without a tennis ball and the simplest rules seemed to have been overridden. During the last hours of play, Karl Straßberger saw himself playing tennis on the Greek beach and Friedrich Nowak perceived the lines as steps, while he had the feeling that he was only walking uphill.
Great support despite the difficult economic situation
Over a hundred volunteers, many sponsors and donors had already supported the campaign in advance. In the months leading up to and during the benefit event, the campaign for inclusion in mass sport achieved a turnover of around 80,000 euros in donations – including sponsorship in kind and services. The beneficiaries were Vinzent, who lives with tetraspasticity, the Sportpaket association and the youth of the Schwöbing tennis club.
Among other things, the Styrian Tennis Association provided the numerous referees. The action had a great media echo and it was presented at this year's general assembly of the Styrian Tennis Association in Graz in front of around 300 participants.
The association "All Winners, Movement for a Good Cause", which was founded by Nowak and Straßberger, has planned further benefit projects. Friedrich Nowak will herald this with an “endurance run to Vienna”, from Parschlug to the Wiener Riesenrad.