Jaded Ando’s plea to chiefs after five-set epic

YOU couldn’t blame Kevin Anderson or John Isner for what they did to Wimbledon yesterday.

You might have wanted to but it would have been churlish nonetheless.

When this pair of human skyscrapers walked out on to Centre Court yesterday at 1pm they were striding into the biggest day of their lives. It was never something they could rush.

That it soon became the most torturous day of everyone else’s was really none of their concern.

It wasn’t just that their slugfest brand of tennis would get the game stopped either.

No, it was the longer it went on – and it lasted for six hours and 38 minutes – it prevented the rest of Wimbledon from watching the one match these championships have been waiting for since the doors of SW19 swung open almost a fortnight ago.

Novak Djokovic v Rafa Nadal. That’s what semi-final day was supposed to be all about.

By comparison Anderson and Isner was the tennis equivalent of Croatia and England. A semi that should never have come to pass in the first place and will probably never come around again.

That’s not to say it wasn’t PLAYER greatest ever success. He added: “Yeah, I don’t know what got me through today’s match other than just a will to try to succeed, keep pushing myself.

“I knew it was going to be a tough match playing John. We’ve played a few times.

“He has got the better of me in our head to heads. I’ve struggled against him in certain areas. Just watching the way he played all week I thought he was playing great tennis.

“Obviously his serve is arguably one of the best of all time. It’s tough playing him. The match was so even throughout.

“I obviously felt I had a few chances in the third set serving for it. Even in that breaker, had a set point, hit a double. He played some great points.

“One of the reasons for the double was I felt like he was being really aggressive on my serve that forced me to go for it a little bit more.

“Then once you’re in the fifth set, in those sort of settings, on the court for over six hours, it’s really tough on your body. You just have to try to keep going.

“I tried as much as I could to just keep fighting.

“I take a lot of pride in that. Fortunately, I was able to find a way over the finish line.”