Isner tops Raonic; American reaches 1st Slam semifinal
LONDON — John Isner is ready to be associated with something at Wimbledon other than winning a 70-68 fifth set in the longest match in tennis history.
He figures a championship would do the trick — and now he’s only two victories from doing so.
Isner, a 33-year-old American playing in his 41st major tournament, reached his first Grand Slam semifinal by beating Milos Raonic 6-7 (5), 7-6 (7), 6-4, 6-3 at the All England Club on Wednesday.
Wednesday’s match was only Isner’s second Grand Slam quarterfinal. The other came in 2011 at the U.S. Open.
In Friday’s semifinals, he’ll play No. 8 seed Kevin Anderson, a South African who saved a match point and came all the way back to stun eighttime champion Roger Federer 2-6, 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-4, 13-11.
Isner had not been past even the third round in 10 previous appearances at Wimbledon, a place he called a “house of horrors” earlier in the tournament because of all of his quick exits and five-set losses. Isner is most famous for that recordbreaking victory over Nicolas Mahut in the first round eight years ago, which lasted 11 hours, 5 minutes spread over three days.
“Of course, everyone is going to remember that match in 2010, and rightfully so. I like to think that, since that match, I’ve done a lot of good stuff on the court performance-wise. But for a lot of people, that’s definitely the lasting image of my career,” said the No. 9 seed, who is based in Dallas. “I think if I can keep going further here, I can maybe squash that.” Thursday’s action: Serena Williams will play in her 35th Grand Slam semifinal against an opponent appearing in her first. Julia Goerges is hoping she can pull off a massive upset against the American — after losing to her five weeks ago at the French Open.
“It’s an honor to share the court with her,” Goerges said, “but I will sort out some tactics with my team ... and we’ll be ready.”
No. 11 Angelique Kerber faces 12th-seeded Jelena Ostapenko in the other semifinal.
Serve clocks: A 25-second serve clock will be used in main-draw matches at a Grand Slam for the first time at this year’s U.S. Open, and the women’s tournament in San Jose will be one of a half-dozen other hard-court tournaments to serve as a dry run leading up to the year’s last major tournament, the U.S. Tennis Association, ATP and WTA announced at Wimbledon.
Those events also will enforce pre-match time limits: Players will have one minute from walking on court until the coin toss, five minutes for warming up and a minute from the end of the warm-up until the start of play. Players who don’t abide by those limits will face fines.
Clocks will be visible on court. If the serve clock runs out, the chair umpire will issue a time violation. Chair umpires will be able to pause the clock at their discretion.
In addition to the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic at San Jose State ( July 30-Aug. 5), the clocks will be used at Washington, Montreal, Toronto, Cincinnati, New Haven and Winston-Salem.