Kevin Anderson produced the greatest performance of his career yesterday to batter his way into the final after the longest semi-final ever witnessed at Wimbledon.
Djokovic, who will face Kevin Anderson in the final on Sunday, recorded a 6-4 3-6 7-6 3-6 10-8 win over Nadal after five hours and 16 minutes of high-quality tennis in the English capital.
With the heavyweight showdown between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic scheduled second on Centre Court after the Anderson-Isner match, some of the crowd began to get restless with one spectator yelling during the decider: "Come on guys, we want to see Rafa". "I wish I could have one, but it is what it is", Djokovic said. "I really do. I think with the performances I've had, I deserve to be in the semifinals", Djokovic said. Very, very happy to be in this position right now in the semi-finals.
While Anderson-Isner was mostly a serving duel with a few longer rallies thrown in, Djokovic and Nadal repeatedly slugged it out from the baseline, chasing each other around the court and coming up with spectacular winners from every corner.
Djokovic was increasingly on the back foot in rallies, and he double-faulted twice to cough up two set points at 4-5 - only to hold his nerve and save them both.
Djokovic immediately broke back, but then Nadal regained the advantage in the following game with a forehand victor. "At the end you feel like it's a draw but someone has to win".
Anderson saved three break points in the third game of the first set before Isner had to save a set point in the 10th. Djokovic owns 12 Slam trophies, three from Wimbledon.
You have a feeling he reached a Grand Slam semi and thought to himself, "Finally, I'll be remembered for something other than that damn Mahut match".
The 33-year-old agreed with Anderson that Wimbledon, the Australian Open and Roland Garros should fall in line with the US Open and introduce a tiebreak in the final set. The Centre Court roof was closed so that the players could continue to play under the lights.
He believes his semifinal should have been played before the Anderson-Isner match Friday.
At the time of writing, the match had gone past the six-hour mark, with Isner and world number eight Anderson locked at 20-20 in the final set after trading service games for hours. "I'm going to have to recover as much as I can and to try to be as ready, as fresh as possible".
"I felt like it was getting better and better as time went on".
"Until the last shot, I didn't know if I would win".
Kim is now clapping back by proclaiming not only is Kylie "self-made", but all of the Kardashian-Jenner sisters are "self-made". All together, Jenner's earnings put her fourth in Forbes' annual ranking of America's richest self-made women .