The average length of a rally in a professional tennis match is only three or four shots. But the likes of Novak Djokovic still feel the need to towel themselves down after every point and then park their backsides for a couple of minutes every other game.

So spare a thought for Steven Worrallo and Allen Benbow who in April 2005 played a rally that lasted a mind-blowing 24,696 shots. The elbow-busting, seven-hour feat at Droitwich Spa Tennis Club earned the shattered pair a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

The feat is commemorated with a spray-painted table top in the clubhouse.