LONDON _ In the longest semifinal match in Wimbledon history, Kevin Anderson edged John Isner on Friday to secure a spot in the men's singles final.
The match lasted six hours, 35 minutes, with Anderson winning 7-6 (6), 6-7 (5), 6-7 (9), 6-4, 26-24.
Anderson will play the winner of the Rafael Nadal-Novak Djokovic semifinal.
Anderson finally broke Isner's huge serve to go up 25-24 in the final set, and that game was marked by a wild rally. At one point, Anderson fell and lost his racket, then picked it up and hit a left-handed forehand that seemed to stun Isner, who was wide afterward.
"You're just trying to fight in every single moment," Anderson told the BBC after the match. "I've hit a lot of left-handed balls in my life ... I didn't know that was going to come into play at this point in my career."
Anderson-Isner, which pitted two opponents who played against each other in college, was the longest-ever match on Centre Court.
It was so interminable that Djokovic posted an Instagram video of himself playing marbles in the locker room while he stretched and waited.
Isner was bidding to become the first American man to reach a Grand Slam final since Andy Roddick finished runner-up at Wimbledon in 2009.
This wasn't Isner's longest match _ not even close. His first-round defeat of Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon in 2010 set the record as the longest tennis match in history in terms of both games and duration. That 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (3), 70-68 odyssey stretched over three days and took 11 hours and five minutes.
The final set alone of that match lasted eight hours, 11 minutes.
