diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index ee5a3fa8d61..b6cfbebb559 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -611,6 +611,7 @@ Build
 
 Tests
 -----
+- Issue #9628: fix runtests.sh -x option so more than one test can be excluded.
 
 - Issue #9894: Do not hardcode ENOENT in test_subprocess.
 
diff --git a/runtests.sh b/runtests.sh
index 2d3cfc8969b..d7b46467618 100755
--- a/runtests.sh
+++ b/runtests.sh
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ case "$#$EXCEPT" in
     TESTS=`(cd Lib/test; ls test_*.py | sed 's/\.py//')`
     ;;
 *-x)
-    PAT="^(`echo $@ | sed 's/\.py//' | sed 's/ /|/'`)$"
+    PAT="^(`echo $@ | sed 's/\.py//g' | sed 's/ /|/g'`)$"
     TESTS=`(cd Lib/test; ls test_*.py | sed 's/\.py//' | egrep -v "$PAT")`
     ;;
 *)