Two of Oxfordshire's tennis coaches have set themselves the challenge of breaking the world record for the longest continuous singles match.
Andy Aitken of Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor Tennis Club and Ryan Trickey of Portcullis Tennis Club want to raise £20,000 for the Dan Maskell Tennis Trust. The charity supports disabled tennis players with equipment, coaching and facilities.
Andy said:"There are people with disabilities who want to play tennis and raising this money will help them get closer to that."
The current Guinness world record stands at 60 hours, 59 minutes and 58 seconds and was set in the United States last month.
Of the challenge Ryan who coaches at Portcullis Tennis Club in Wallingford, said:"I wanted to do a challenge and we thought it would be a great challenge and decided to pursue it."
As part of the training for their record attempt this August Ryan and Andy got through 424 games over 33 hours at the White Horse Leisure & Tennis Centre,last week, starting at 9am Monday and fininshing at 6pm the next day. Ryan won the game 34 sets to 12.
When attempting the record they will be allowed a 90-second break when they swap ends after each odd game, and a two-minute break after each set. They will also have an average break of five minutes per hour and take 30 minutes out every six hours.
Ryan said after the training:"Physically, it will be quite a challenge but we have a goal and that is the thing which drives us. My feet hurt a bit and I got blisters but my legs weren't too bad. We managed to play some good tennis. We had a bit of a slump around 6-7am when we were quite tired and struggling, but after that we seemed to get on okay."
If you want to support them in their bid to raise money for the Dan Maskell Tennis Trust you can either text 'tennis' to 70007 (It will cost £3 plus the standard message rate, but £2.40 will go directly to the charity) or you can donate online by visiting the website www.justgiving.com/longestsinglestennismatch