WIMBLEDON – Many tennis fans around the world might have had little interest in following the Wimbledon semifinals after Roger Federer’s shocking elimination in the quarters. In my opinion, they were wrong. The battle won by Kevin Anderson of South Africa against John Isner of the United States with the score of 7-6 (6), 6-7 (5), 6-7 (9) 6-4, 26-24 was a semifinal for the ages and not only a serving display like many had predicted. The first three sets contested by Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic were also of the highest quality before the match was interrupted at 11:00 pm due to the curfew imposed by the Wimbledon community.
The 6 hours and 36 minutes marathon between two of the tallest and biggest servers in tennis opened a debate about the introduction of the tie-breaker in the fifth and deciding set – a rule that the US Open adopted in 1970. It is certainly a very complicated topic as we all remember a few legendary finals that wouldn’t have probably been so enthralling if they had been decided by a fifth set tie-breaker: Nadal prevailing over Federer 9-7 in 2008, Ivanisevic defeating Rafter 9-7 in 2001 and Federer winning over Roddick 16-14 in 2009. It is also true that if these long sets occur before the final, the player that ends up winning the marathon usually doesn’t have many chances to recuperate and do well in the next round.
Anderson’s chances to play a great final are very slim in my opinion. The South African’s win over Federer with the score of 13-11 in the fifth set required 77 games, while the semifinal with Isner was 26-24 in the fifth after the two players battled for 99 games. In total, Anderson – who at 32 years of age is certainly not a teen-ager anymore – played 176 games in 10 sets and stayed on the court for more than 10 hours throughout his quarterfinal and semifinal matches.
“We could play a tie-breaker at 12-12 in the fifth. If you can’t finish off your opponent, then the tie-breaker should decide the match,” Isner said in his post-match press conference.
Jimmy Van Alen made history when he invented the tie-breaker after witnessing a doubles match that finished 44-42 in Newport, Rhode Island. Now it’s probably time to extend the rule to the fifth set as well.
“The spectators that paid for their tickets almost saw only one semifinal. I think many of them couldn’t wait for us to get off the court. It wasn’t necessary for them to watch us play for 6 and a half hours! On top of that, it certainly isn’t ideal for Rafa and Novak to play their semifinal match in two days,” Anderson said.
Despite an incredible serving display from both players, the clash between Anderson and Isner was a very good match with plenty of exciting moments. We saw a bunch of rallies that lasted 23, 18 or 13 shots and most of them were won by Anderson, who is a faster a more complete player than the American.
Anderson started making inroads towards the upper echelon of the game in 2015 when he almost took out Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon and then defeated Andy Murray at the US Open. Against both Federer and Isner, the South African showed nerves of steel when he served endless times to stay in the match.
The longest semifinal in Wimbledon history kept pushing back the beginning of the most anticipated match of the day: Djokovic and Nadal were able to take the court only at 8:05 PM. The two superstars seemed unfazed by the long wait and gave us three outstanding sets before the match was suspended at 11:00 PM with Djokovic leading 64, 36, 76. The match is scheduled to resume today at 1:00 PM before the women’s final.
(Article translation provided by T&L Global – Translation & Language Solutions – www.t-lglobal.com )
