Difficult as it might be to remember at this time-is-money stage in tennis, the sport once had no tiebreakers.

Long ago, every set had to be won by a two-game margin and theoretically had no finish line. Which meant that at Wimbledon in the first round of the men’s singles in 1969, the great but aging Pancho Gonzales defeated Charlie Pasarell by the score of 22-24, 1-6, 16-14, 6-3, 11-9 in a two-day match that lasted five hours and 12 minutes.

The tiebreaker was introduced to Grand Slam tennis the following year at the 1970 United States Open, with red flags being flown courtside whenever a set reached 6-6.

It has taken 49 more years for the major tournaments to reach the awkward phase where all four use different methods to resolve deciding sets in singles.