Six hours, thirty-six minutes.
That's how long it took for South Africa's Kevin Anderson to fend off Greensboro native John Isner in Friday's Wimbledon semi-finals at the All England Tennis Club.
Coming into the match, Kevin Anderson was riding the high of having just defeated Roger Federer, the world's No. 2-ranked player. Meanwhile, Isner, playing some of the best tennis of his career, was hoping to be the first American since Andy Roddick in 2009 to make a Grand Slam final.
In previous head-to-head matchups, Isner held the edge 8-3. At 6 feet 10 inches, his serve is one of the fastest in the game, reaching speeds of more than 140 mph. But Anderson is 6 feet 8 inches, with a thundering serve of his own.
The rallies in Friday's match were typically short, with the servers dominating play, and each of the first three sets went into tie-breakers, favoring Isner. In the fourth set, Anderson managed to return several of Isner's huge first serves to edge back, 6-4.
But the story of the day was the epic, nearly 3-hour-long final set, an outlier among Grand Slam events since Wimbledon does not allow fifth set tiebreaker games.
The players continued to trade massive serves as the game count climbed to five, then ten, then 20 games apiece as Isner began to fade. He was losing the longer rallies, his legs weakening after more than five hours on the court.
For his part, Anderson – even after his hard-fought victory over Federer two days before – appeared to be the fresher of the two. And after a dramatic game in which he broke Isner's serve, fell down, and even hit a forehand shot with his non-dominant hand, Anderson finally took the victory. The final score: 7-6, 6-7, 6-7, 6-4, 26-24.
At more than six-and-a-half hours, the match became an instant classic, and the longest ever on Wimbledon's Centre Court.
Anderson faces the winner of the other semi-final between the world's top-ranked player, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic.