BATTLE OF BRITAIN
Anderson outlasts Isner in 6½-hour semifinal with 50-game 5th set
LONDON — They were supposed to be the warm-up act, the undercard, the appetizer to a main course featuring superstars with 29 major championships between them.
But Kevin Anderson and John Isner — with zero Grand Slam titles to their name — doggedly refused to leave Centre Court.
Their relentless battle raged on so long, Isner became Wasner.
In a six-hour, 36-minute match between NBA-sized players whose serves could crack concrete, South Africa’s Anderson finally pulled away to win 7-6 (6), 6-7 (5), 6-7 (9), 6-4 and a whopping 26-24.
“I tried as much as I could to just keep fighting,” Anderson said. “I take a lot of pride in that. Fortunately, I was able to find a way over the finish line.”
That secured him a spot in Sunday’s final against Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal, whose semifinal was suspended Friday night because of the 11 p.m. curfew at Wimbledon. That match will resume Saturday with Djokovic up 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (9).
After that match is completed, Serena Williams will play Angelique Kerber in the women’s singles final. Williams, 36, goes for her eighth Wimbledon title and first major championship since giving birth to her daughter on Sept. 1. Williams takes on Angelique Kerber, who lost to
Williams in the 2016 final. Williams, a 23-time Grand Slam champion, is playing just her fourth tournament since returning to action in March.
Kerber, a two-time Grand Slam champion, is playing in her first major final since her triumph at the 2016 U.S. Open. The German has rebounded nicely from a disappointing 2017, also reaching the semifinals at the Australian Open and the quarters at the French Open.
“I think it is a completely new match,” Kerber said. “She’s coming back. For me also, I’m coming back from 2017.”
Isner’s name was already synonymous with never-ending marathons. At Wimbledon in 2010, his first-round match against France’s Nicolas Mahut was the longest in tennis history, lasting 11 hours and five minutes over three days.
The fact that he has augmented his place in Wimbledon lore, with the two longest matches in the history of the tournament, means little to Isner.
“That’s no consolation to me,” he said. “I’m not going to hang my hat on that, for sure. It’s more just
disappointed to lose. I was pretty close to making a Grand Slam final, and it didn’t happen … so that’s that.”
Nothing compares to that historic 183-game odyssey — the final set alone, at 70-68, went eight hours, 11 minutes — but people won’t soon forget Friday’s slog, which required officials to close the roof and turn on the lights for Djokovic-Nadal.
The 6-10 Isner was looking to become the first American since Andy Roddick in 2009 to reach a Grand Slam final.
“I competed hard, that’s what it comes down to,” he said. “That’s what I have to be proud of. It stinks to lose, but I gave it everything I had out there. I just lost to someone who was a little bit better at the end.”
The signature moment for Anderson came in the
second-to-last game of the fifth set, when he got jammed up on his backhanded return, stumbled and fell flat on his back. In the process, he dropped his racket.
Instead of giving up on the point, he scrambled to his feet, grabbed his racket high on the neck with his off hand, and somehow kept the rally alive with a lefthanded forehand. He wound up winning the point when Isner hit a shot wide.
That put Anderson ahead 30-love, and he ultimately broke Isner’s mighty serve. One game later, the match was over.
“When I was younger, I had elbow surgery at a pretty young age,” Anderson said. “Actually played four or five months just with my left hand.
“It was interesting because I hit it pretty well. I
was reflecting that I wouldn’t have thought back then that I was going to use a lefthanded shot at the semifinals of Wimbledon.”
Anderson came into the match 3-8 against Isner in the pro ranks, although the two played in college when Isner was at Georgia and Anderson competed for Illinois.
“He’s one of the most professional players on tour,” Isner said.
That’s clearly paying off for Anderson, who has a chance to make good on something he was unable to do against Nadal in last year’s U.S. Open — slam the door in the final of a major championship.
“Maybe I felt sort of my crowning achievement was actually getting to the finals,” Anderson said. “Definitely hungry to go one step further.”
The question for Anderson heading into the biggest moment of his career is, how does he recover after such a grueling match and be ready for Sunday’s final?
The semifinal came on the heels of a quarterfinal victory over the legendary Roger Federer that went to 13-11 in the fifth set.
“I actually went straight into the ice tank, then I did the stretching,” Anderson
said, referring to the Isner match. “I actually ate before stretching, as well. Obviously trying to get sort of food and nutrition back in my body is a challenge because you definitely don’t feel like eating, but you have to somehow force it down.”
Now, Anderson has at least a few more hours to go.
And he wouldn’t trade them for anything.