Isner Loses to Mathieu in French Open Marathon Match Patrick Kovarik/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images John Isner did not get much support from the French crowd during his long match with Paul-Henri Mathieu. PARIS - This time, it turned out differently after all that effort. This time, John Isner lost to an unseeded Frenchman at a Grand Slam tournament with the fifth-set score deep, though not nearly as deep, into double digits. This time, with red clay underneath his feet instead of English grass and with an enthralled crowd cheering against him, it was Isner, the 6-foot-9 American, who cracked first. And when this second-round French Open match was well and truly over and Paul-Henri Mathieu had wept and felt the welcome sting of all those Gallic slaps on his back, he looked at his phone and realized that his close friend Nicolas Mahut was calling. "He told me that he was proud of me," Mathieu said. And I told him I was happy to have gotten revenge for him. There will almost certainly never be another match as long as Isner's ultramarathon victory over Mahut in the first round of Wimbledon in 2010. It lasted 11 hours 5 minutes and stretched over three days and plenty of false dawns before Isner won, 70-68, in the fifth set. Mathieu's 6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 18-16 victory on Thursday was little more than a movie trailer compared with that London epic. But at 5:41, Mathieu's and Isner's joint effort was still the second-longest match in French Open history in terms of elapsed time, behind Fabrice Santoro's 6:33 victory over his French compatriot Arnaud Clément in 2004. Santoro required two days to finish off Clément, 16-14, in the fifth set. Thursday's classic came in a single serving, beginning in bright sunshine at 3:27 p.m. on Court Philippe Chatrier and ending in shadows at 9:08 p.m., when Isner's weary topsin forehand bounced wide on Mathieu's seventh match point. Mathieu, 30, a wild card ranked 261st, thrust both arms into the air, brought his hands to his head and walked forward for a handshake that turned into a partial embrace. Once France's brightest prospect and ranked as high as No. 12 in 2008, Mathieu has had to fight back repeatedly from injuries, most recently from an arthritic left knee that required reconstructive surgery and kept him off tour for 15 months. He first started hitting balls from a seated position, resumed light on-court training in August and returned to the tour in late January with no official ranking. When he won his first match in Montpellier, he cried on court. But Montpellier is not Roland Garros to a French tennis player. "When I was hurt, every day I fought and was thinking about being on this court here for a big match," said Mathieu, who repeatedly teared up during interviews. Even though I played all the Grand Slam tournaments on all the big courts, this is one of the most beautiful moments of my career, especially after my injury. I fought to live these moments again. Even if I would have lost, I would have spent an incredible day on the court. Isner, in defeat, could not say the same. "It's more disappointing how I lost it," he said. For whatever, six hours, really not doing what I should be doing. I don't know. I just couldn't free myself up the whole match. It was also a challenging day for Andy Murray, the No. 4 seed from Britain, who was close to retiring because of back spasms after losing the first set of his match against the Finnish veteran Jarkko Nieminen. Murray, at times unable to run or serve at close to full strength, gradually worked his way back, with plenty of help from the increasingly erratic Nieminen. Murray won, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2, and said he intended to play his third-round match against Santiago Giraldo of Colombia. It was quite a comeback, but not nearly the equal of Mathieu's. Isner, the No. 10 seed and the last American male singles player standing, gave Mathieu ample credit. "My inability to change cost me the match," Isner said. But he was better. Mathieu was also, astonishingly, fresher, hunting down drop shots and maintaining a bounce in his stride until the end despite his lack of best-of-five-set match play in recent seasons.