LIVERPOOL’S Ken Skupski will be keeping his fingers crossed that Nicolas Mahut’s marathon madness is not infectious after the sun went down on the Brit’s first round doubles match at Wimbledon.

Skupski and partner Colin Fleming were forced to sit in the locker-room twiddling their thumbs while Mahut, who was scheduled to face the Brits along with fellow Frenchman Arnaud Clement, dealt with the small matter of finishing his epic duel with John Isner.

Back Mahut went to court 18 for a further 65 minutes before going down in the final set 70-68 in the longest tennis match in history – a war of attrition that lasted for 11 hours and five minutes in total.

Both Isner and Mahut were scheduled for doubles action but the American’s partner Sam Querrey was involved in a late singles match himself and he was afforded the chance to put his feet up.

Mahut was given no such luxury and he gathered himself and returned to court – ironically court 18 once more – with Clement to face Skupski and Fleming with play starting just after 8pm. That gave Skupski and Fleming the chance to take a one-set lead and they will resume on Friday, buoyed their dogged performance, which saw them clinch the first set 7-6.

Meanwhile third seed Caroline Wozniacki produced a performance fit for the Queen even though Her Majesty was not there to see it.

The 19-year-old Wozniacki treated the sparse crowd to another impressive display of her exciting potential as she gained a 6-4 6-3 victory over Wimbledon debutant Kai-Chen Chang, the world number 89 from Taipei.