Kevin Anderson (RSA) celebrates match point during his match against John Isner (USA) on day 11 at All England Lawn and Croquet Club. Anderson’s reward for this effort: his first-ever berth in the grass-court tournament final.
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“Unbelievable atmosphere”, Tiley said.
The match wasn’t just notable because it was long. It was so exciting. “It was one of those classic matches”.
The lefty shot would prove critical as Anderson would win that game to break Isner and then serve out the match. He even apologized for not being more excited as he explained how he sympathized with Isner.
Isner was the last remaining American in the men’s bracket.
The knock on effect also meant Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic were kept waiting till past 8pm local time to start their semi-final and will have to return on Saturday to finish the match because they ran out of time before the 11pm curfew. With both Anderson and Isner exhausted from their mammoth efforts on court, the discussion to abandon tradition and change rules was a hot topic in media sessions.
“If a match is 12-all in the fifth set, I don’t think it needs to continue”, Anderson added.
The 6-foot-10 Isner and the 6-foot-8 Anderson had played 11 times before on tour, but they also faced each other in college, including in the 2007 NCAA finals, which Isner won.
With Anderson serving for the final at 25-24, Isner handed his opponent two match points when a return sailed long.
Having once again swapped breaks early on in the fourth set, Anderson broke Isner for the third time, and took the match into a decider on his fourth set point.
A superb forehand into the ad corner gave him a second chance to take the set on his own serve, but an exchange of drop-shots brought fans to a frenzy.
This semifinal featured a high level of emotion from both athletes right off the bat.
At 24-24 in the fifth set Kevin Anderson slipped on the baseline and dropped his racket.
Wimbledon doesn’t use tiebreakers in the fifth set for men, or third set for women, so there’s nothing to prevent a match from continuing ad infinitum.
This is just the latest high point for Anderson over the course of an impressive last 11 months. But, it was the 32-year old South African who held his nerves and prevailed in the iconic clash which lasted six hours and thirty-five minutes to book a place in the men’s singles final of Wimbledon 2018.
Anderson, who had dethroned eight-time champion Roger Federer in the quarterfinals in a five-set thriller, advanced to his second grand slam finals.
However, Djokovic-Nadal was the headline act of the day – they have five Wimbledon titles between them and met in the 2011 final – while Anderson and Isner had never made the semi-finals before.
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Because Nadal and Djokovic didn’t begin playing until after 8 p.m., the retractable roof above the main stadium was shut between the matches and the arena’s artificial lights were turned on.
