Play suspended between marathon men Cilic and Isner

A lengthy encounter always looked on the cards given their track records for going the distance and as the gloom descended on Court One play was suspended after four hours and 15 minutes.

American Isner, who beat Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 70-68 in the longest match in history, an 11 hour five minute epic in the first round of Wimbledon in 2010, lost the first set on a tiebreak before taking the second in similar fashion.

Croatian Cilic, who contested the second-longest men's singles match ever played at Wimbledon in 2012 with a five hour 31 minute victory over Sam Querrey, took the third 6-4 before towering Isner battled to win the fourth in another tiebreak.

Ninth seed Cilic squandered a match point in the 10th game of the fifth set and the pair will return on Saturday as they try to set up a fourth-round tie with American Denis Kudla.