World's longest professional tie break record smashed

Talk about a marathon game - the record for the longest ever tie-break in professional tennis has been smashed at a Futures event in Florida.

Monaco's world number 636 Benjamin Balleret beat unranked compatriot Guillaume Couillard played out a mammoth 70 point tiebreak, which Balleret won 36-34.

"We haven't been able to find a tie-break that went longer than this," the International Tennis Federation said on their Twitter account today.

However, Sunday's amazing test of will may not become official due to a lack of a chair umpire.

The two relative unknowns crushed the previous record of 38, last achieved back in 1997 when Goran Ivanisevic beat Greg Rusedski at the Queen's tournament in London.

The 38 point mark had been reached two other times in matches by Bjorn Borg and Andy Roddick.

Balleret and Couillard established the mark in the first set of their qualifying third round game at the Plantation Future event, the lowest category of professional tennis.