Isner welcomes Wimbledon's new tiebreak rule

FILE PHOTO - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, Wimbledon, England - 24/6/10 John Isner of USA (L), Nicolas Mahut of France (C) and Umpire Mohamed Lahyani stand next to the scoreboard after their first round match. Isner won the match 70-68 in the fifth set setting a world record for the longest tennis match in history Mandatory Credit: Action Images / Pool Pic Livepic

LONDON (Reuters) - Tennis's marathon man John Isner has welcomed Wimbledon's decision to introduce tiebreaks at 12-12 in the final set.

The American became something of a Wimbledon cult hero when beating France's Nicolas Mahut 70-68 in the fifth set in 2010 - a record-breaking duel lasting 11 hours five minutes and spanning three days and in which the last set alone (eight hours 11 minutes) would have broken the previous longest-match record.