Lleyton Hewitt record broken as tennis rocked by 'crazy' scenes

Alexander Zverev and Jenson Brooksby have completed the latest-finishing match in ATP history, with Zverev prevailing at 4.55am in a wild night of tennis in Mexico.

The Acapulco Open played host to extraordinary scenes on Tuesday as three-consecutive matches went the distance and pushed Zverev's clash with Brooksby into uncharted territory.

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After battling for three hours and 19 minutes during which the German World No.3 twice came within a point of losing, Zverev defeated the 47th-ranked Brooksby 3-6 7-6 (12-10) 6-2.

Remarkably, there were still fans in the stands at the ATP 500 event as the match broke the previous record of 4:34am for latest finish - set by Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis at the 2008 Australian Open.

"Right now I'm happy to have won," defending champion Zverev said on court.

"I don't know how Jenson feels. Must be difficult but happy to be a part of history. It was an incredible battle."

The marathon night kicked off with John Isner beating Fernando Verdasco 7-5 6-7 (4-70 7-3 (7-3) in three hours and 14 minutes.

Verdasco was 5-2 up in the third with a match-point on Isner's serve, however the American produced a remarkable comeback to survive.

American youngster Stefan Kozlov was then in the middle of an evening practice session with Rafa Nadal when he found out he was replacing injured Frenchman Maxime Cressy in the main draw as a lucky loser.

The 24-year-old had to rush to centre court to face Grigor Dimitrov, claiming the biggest win of his career in three hours and 21 minutes.

"I was playing a practice set with Rafa ... he breaks his string, goes to his bag. I just happen to check my phone for whatever reason," Kozlov said.

"I just had an intuition and then I have 20 text messages ... they're like 'get over here'.

"I dropped all my stuff. I told Rafa, he's got a big smile on his face. He's super excited for me ... I got over here and I had about 30 minutes to get ready."

Tennis world in disbelief over 'crazy' scenes

The 130th-ranked Kozlov suffered severe leg cramps after breaking his opponent's serve to take a 5-3 lead in the second set.

Kozlov slumped to the ground in agony and was barely able to move as Dimitrov reeled off four successive games to force a deciding set.

Facing a premature retirement, the 24-year-old Kozloz displayed incredible mental and physical strength to prevail 6-3 in the third set.

"Today I was totally expecting not to be playing," said Kozlov, adding that he would have retired if he had failed to hold his first service game in the third set against Dimitrov.

"Now I've got the biggest win of my career and I'm about to play Rafa Nadal."

In bizarre scenes, event organisers then held a flag ceremony on court at 1.25am - pushing Zverev's clash with Brooksby even later.

with agencies

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