Knackered Novak serves up a thrilling treat for fans as he edges out Nadal on women’s finals day

They wouldn’t dare be so crass at the All England Club as to put on a buy-one-get-one-free.

But that’s effectively what the Centre Court crowd got yesterday. They came to watch the women’s final and ended up watching the men’s title being decided into the bargain.

OK, so Novak Djokovic will have to return to SW19 today to complete the formalities by taking on and toppling the human skyscraper that is Kevin Anderson. But what he and Rafa Nadal treated us to yesterday – and on Friday night when this magnificent marathon of a contest began – was in every sense the final before the final.

Over two days and five hours and 15 minutes they produced one of the greatest, most gripping semi-finals this old place has seen.

A five-set marathon which sapped the stamina and chewed on the nerves until Djokovic managed to find a way to win it, 91 minutes and 18 games into the deciding shoot-out to claim victory in a 6- 4 3- 6 7- 6(11-9) 3- 6 10-8 epic.

When the Serb walked out here at 1pm yesterday he was within six games of booking his place to face South African Anderson who came through a monster of a match against John Isner on Friday night in a battle of the big servers which deteriorated into a test of endurance.

But this gargantuan encounter between Djokovic and Nadal was like watching an ent i rely di f ferent spor t . It was spellbinding stuff from the moment it started until the moment Djokovic broke Nadal’s serve to complete the job and make it into a Wimbledon final for the first time since he won the singles title here three years ago.

They started off just as they had left things on Friday night. Going at one another like hammer and tongs.

Nadal needed 16 minutes and six deuces to hold his serve in the opening game as Djokovic looked to fly out of the traps.

By the end of it Nadal – a spectacularly sweaty man at the best of times – looked