Perkins, Watkins keep their sense of humor

After nearly 30 hours on the tennis court, KARE 11 TV sportscaster David Watkins and Eric Perkins looked, well, like a couple of guys who just got done playing 30 hours of tennis. The thing is, they weren't done.

The duo continued playing at Gustavus Adolphus College's Swanson Tennis Center Tuesday in their attempt to set the world record for the longest tennis match. The event served two purposes -- to serve as the inaugural segment of Watkins' new series The Record Wreckers, and to kick start Gustavus Adolphus College's Relay for Life fundraiser for cancer research.

With nearly seven hours still left to play, Perkins led 52 sets to 2. He had won 326 games to Watkins' 95. The lopsided match not withstanding, Watkins refused to give an inch.

"I'm just playing possum," he said, still managing a smile. "I'm going to stage the greatest comeback in sports history."

Despite their exhaustion, neither Watkins not Perkins had lost his sense of humor. When asked what part of his body hurt the most during his hourly five-minute break, Perkins had a two-word answer.

"My feet. My plan was to wear the most comfortable pair of tennis shoes I own, unfortunately, my most comfortable shoes turned out to be a little too small."

By the 30th hour Perkins had cut the tops of his shoes off, exposing his blistered, bandaged feet. "Other than my feet, I can't tell you for print what other parts of my body hurt the most," he said.

About six hours into the match, Perkins said he asked himself why he was doing this? After that he just stopped counting games or hours and just steeled himself to move forward.

Watkins said there were at least four different points during the first 30 hours that he came close to hanging it up. But he too persevered and kept the goal of a 37-hour match in sight.

Tim Kennedy, the Gustavus Adolphus Sports Information Director, was serving as the official scorer for the match as well as the representative from The Guinness Book of World Records. It was his job to make sure there was no more than a five-minute break every hour and no more than a 90-second break on change-overs.

"They're holding up remarkably well," Kennedy said at about 3 p.m. Tuesday. "I think it was tough on them about 4:30 this morning when there was nobody here and they were really tired, but they kept going. I think they're going to make it."