Tennis
#KevinAnderson Wimbledon's marathon king─── 10:48 Sat, 14 Jul 2018
South Africa's Kevin Anderson emerged victorious from an epic Wimbledon semifinal encounter against American John Isner with a marathon 7-6 (6) 6-7 (5) 6-7 (9) 6-4 7-6 (24) win at the All England Club on Friday afternoon.
In the process, the eighth-seeded Kevin Anderson became the first South African man to reach the Wimbledon final since Brian Norton in 1921.
Anderson also became the only second South African man in history to reach multiple Grand Slam finals, after Eric Sturgess.
The match took 6 hours 36 minutes and will go down as the longest Grand Slam semifinal in the tennis history. It was also the second-longest singles match in Wimbledon history.
The final set lasted just on three hours after Anderson spurned break points at 7-7, 10-10 and 17-17 before finally securing the decisive breakthrough to go 25-24 up.
It was the second epic five-setter Anderson claimed after downing the 'King of Grass' Roger Federer, the No 1 seed, two days ago in another marathon clash in the quarterfinal round.
The second semifinal will be between second seed Rafael Nadal and 12th seed Novak Djokovic, also on centre court but under a closed roof.
African News Agency (ANA)
