50-game final set in epic semi!
WIMBLEDON MARATHON LASTS MORE THAN SIX HOURS
OH, our lack of faith. the foolish thought in most minds as this match started was: let’s get these big- serving brutes on and off pronto to make way for the princes of Centre Court who were scheduled to be next up.
But by the time Kevin Anderson held his nerve to triumph in the 50th game of the final set — with 6hr 36min on the clock — we were wallowing in the absurd masochistic near-endlessness of it all.
the arena had almost filled at lunchtime, emptied as John Isner and Anderson went toe-to-toe in the warm afternoon sun, and was packed again after tea as the shadows lengthened.
the abiding image of Anderson will be of him, exhausted and having slipped, on his backside and getting a forehand back with his left hand and halfway up the racket’s throat, as he closed in on the crucial break at 25-24. He served out and that was soon that.
this was the longest Centre Court match ever, and at the climax — for it did eventually come at 7.47pm — Anderson staggered to his first Wimbledon gentleman’s singles final.
the two men hugged a tired hug, neither deserving to have lost. Whether Anderson will have the energy to turn the day of his dreams into a worthwhile contest is another matter entirely.
the South African himself wondered how he would recover in time to face the winner of the match between rafa nadal-novak djokovic, those princes who got on to the grass late, saying: ‘It’s tough. I hope this is a signal for grand slams to change this format (towards final-set tiebreaks). We should address this because at the end you don’t feel great out there.
‘they need to think of the players’ health. Perhaps going to a tiebreak in the final set at 12-12 would be a good balance.’
‘But I’m into a Wimbledon final and that is a dream come true.’
In fairness to both Isner and Anderson they were more rounded than their billing as sluggers suggested. they could play some decent tennis, and, at times, set pulses racing. But it was their serving that was most impressive: Isner managed 53 aces and Anderson 49.
Isner’s rocket comes from 11ft high as he extends his 6ft 10in frame. He can reach 144mph. Anderson, only fractions slower and shorter at 6ft 8in, but perhaps the more rounded player, can bang them in well into the high-130mph range.
Would either of them ever lose a game, we wondered? After all, Isner had not lost one of his 95 service games going into yesterday. He was the only man ever to have reached the last four with such a one-sided weight of statistics behind his name since these feats were first recorded in 1992.
His record was preserved until the third set. up until then only tiebreaks could separate the pair. But with the match 2hr 27min old, Anderson managed the previously impossible to break for 5-3 up. But Isner, spirited throughout, roared straight back to make it 5-4, and then it was on to a third tiebreak.
these two knew each other well, having first clashed in 2004, and here they were back together, Isner, at 33, and Anderson, at 32.
Anderson, runner-up at the uS Open last year, came here buoyed by his victory over the Lord of these Acres, roger Federer. In the fourth set, Anderson broke, then Isner came straight back, then Anderson struck again.
even looking at them, they were hard to tell apart. Both wore caps, but Isner wore his back to front.
As time wore on into the deciding set, someone shouted: ‘not 7068 again, John.’
He smiled, fair play to him. It was a reference to 2010, when his firstround match against nicolas Mahut was played over three days — the longest ever match in terms both of the number of games and duration. It lasted 11hr 5min and totalled 183 games.
Yesterday’s marathon was the next-longest at the All england Club long before it ticked through the six-hour barrier. And as for Stefan edberg versus Michael Chang in the 1992 uS Open semifinal, it was dwarfed: that only lasted 5hr 26min. We almost needed to exhume norris McWhirter to chart this epic.
the tense drama here was enough to make you faint through exhaustion and that was just watching. At 17-17, Isner faced two break points but found the guns to escape. For now. At least Isner, who was married last year and will become a father in September, will be home in time for the birth.
He is a vocal supporter of donald trump and hoped the big man would make it to see him.
the donald will not now be breaking from running the free world to watch in the final the South African, lion-hearted though he was, who beat his boy.