After two epics, it’s Djokovic against Anderson in final

LONDON: Serbia’s Novak Djokovic reached his fifth Wimbledon final as he resisted everything great rival Rafael Nadal could throw at him to win 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(9), 3-6, 10-8 in a two-day classic that concluded in nerve-jangling tension on Saturday.

Djokovic and Nadal continued where they left off the night before under the Centre Court roof. Their record-extending 52nd career clash had been halted on a knife edge on Friday by Wimbledon’s 11 pm curfew after Djokovic had saved three set points in a gripping third-set tiebreak to move two sets to one ahead. When play resumed, still under cover despite the sunny weather, the quality of the tennis scaled the heights.

The fifth set alone lasted 91 minutes before Nadal finally buckled and a rejuvenated Djokovic advanced to his first Grand Slam final for two years in which he will be favourite against South African eighth seed Kevin Anderson.

“It’s hard to pick the words, I am just going through things that flash back -- the last 15 months, everything I have been through to get here,” said 12-times Grand Slam champion Djokovic, who has suffered a career-slump in the past 18 months.

The match duration of five hours 15 minutes made it the second-longest Wimbledon semi-final after the six-hour-36-minute marathon won by Anderson against John Isner on Friday.

“Hopefully we can both play! It’s been a roller-coaster for him in the last couple of rounds but he had a day off and that means a lot ,” Djokovic said.

Anderson, after surviving a 7-6(6), 6-7(5), 6-7(9), 6-4, 26-24 epic, is hoping his “sore” and “swollen” feet, and “jelly-like” legs will be able to withstand one final test in Sunday’s final. “I need a lot of treatment in terms of getting the body back balanced and stuff, but at the same time obviously sleep is important, too,” said the first South African man since Brian Norton in 1921 to reach Wimbledon final.