Words can't possibly describe what it's like to watch a tennis set that lasts for 118 games and then is temporarily stopped for an overnight break...

...but Xan Brooks does his best to do it, and he certainly does better than I could. Note that nobody realized that history was being made until they were well into it, and so it takes a while for the Match That Would Not End (which didn't seem like an important match between important players to begin with) to take over the column.

Warning: Brooks's chosen metaphor is that of the Everlasting Zombie Tennis Players, and while the metaphor serves him well in general, it does occasionally lead him into sentences that ought not be read aloud at the dinner table...