Tennis!

[Bobfoc]

I stopped watching Anderson/Isner and tuned into the Boys' Singles Semi-Final, which also went late into the final set. Britain's Jack Draper has just made it through to the Final, winning 19-17 in the last set. OK, it's not quite as long as the match on Centre Court, but playing for around four hours is a gruelling ask for a 16-year-old.

[Chris2K]

The poor Colombian kid looked devastated as well.

 

Meanwhile Anderson has just won a point after falling over and playing a shot left handed to recover. Obviously.

 

BREAK POINTS?!!

 

A BREAK 

[Baddar]

Anderson breaks!!!

[Bobfoc]

Oh, bugger me. This might actually end.

[Baddar]

Calling an Isner break back now, despite it looking unlikely all day.

[Chris2K]

I dunno, I think Isner's looking done for.

 

It's over. It's finally over.

[Baddar]

Match points!!!

Anderson wins it.

[Bobfoc]

If Anderson were to win the Final, it would be one of the greatest sporting achievements ever. He's effectively played eight sets today, and there's then the small matter of facing either Nadal or Djokovic in fewer than 48 hours.

[Adam]

7 hours ago, Bobfoc said:

If Anderson were to win the Final, it would be one of the greatest sporting achievements ever. He's effectively played eight sets today, and there's then the small matter of facing either Nadal or Djokovic in fewer than 48 hours.

Not to mention he played an extra set against Federer in the previous round too.

[Bobfoc]

6 hours ago, PanamAdam said:

Not to mention he played an extra set against Federer in the previous round too.

And his win against Monfils in the round before that took three-and-a-half hours. It's a testament to his stamina that he's even standing.

[Baddar]

Kerber beats Serena in straight sets.

[Adam]

I'm so happy for her, she had a bad year last year and has done great to battle back to this level. Fully deserved, she's a wonderful player to watch.

[Arjen Robben]

I don't realise Kerber had won 3 of the 4 Slams now. I knew she won the Australian Open earlier this year, but didn't realise she'd won the US Open too.

Disappointed Nadal didn't make the final. Think he'll never get a better chance to win another Wimbledon, but it felt like after that long game where he had a few break points against Djokovic and Djokovic managed to close it out, I could only ever see him winning from there, and Nadal constantly serving to stay in it didn't help.

[Adam]

36 minutes ago, Arjen Robben said:

I don't realise Kerber had won 3 of the 4 Slams now. I knew she won the Australian Open earlier this year, but didn't realise she'd won the US Open too

Kerber had a brilliant 2016 season, winning the Australian Open and US Open, and losing in the final of Wimbledon to Serena. She was world #1 for a while but struggled last year (even lost in Round 1 of her US Title defence). She's been better this year. She made it to the semi finals of this year's Australian Open, she didn't win it.

[Arjen Robben]

Yeah, dunno why I thought it was her this year. One of those weird things with tennis where things that happened ages ago feel so much more recent than they are. Like when Federer went out the other day, I was thinking back to when Tsonga came back to win against him from two sets down and that didn't feel like that long ago but was actually in 2011. Had some memory of her beating Halep in the final but yeah, was a semi-final she didn't even win so I'm all over the place  

That's the weird, annoying thing with the women's game that everyone bar Serena is just so inconsistent, you'll get players winning a Slam or making a final and then going out in the 3rd round or something at every tournament after, people getting to number one without ever winning anything. Like Ana Ivanovic, looked like she was really coming through, semi final of Wimbledon, won the Australian Open, final of the French Open, and then just fall apart completely after that. Wozniacki getting to number one in like 2010 without really winning anything, only won her first slam this year. It's nice in it's own way to have a new champion all the time, but at the same time you'd quite like someone to come through that has the consistency of Serena or former women's players so you can watch somebody be truly great and build a legacy like that rather than some fleeting moment of glory and that's them done.

[Baddar]

Looking like a close final. 🤔 🤔 🤔 🤔

[Arjen Robben]

At least he had the really long match.

[Baddar]

I mean it might well have ended in a straight sets loss anyway, but the game the other day didn't help.

[Adam]

Djokovic had a five set epic with Nadal in the semis, and had to play it over two days. Not ideal at all.

I didn't see nearly as many people moaning about there being no 5th set tiebreak when Nadal and Djokovic were in a battle yesterday. It's just because Anderson and Isner are boring big servers that people complained about the rule.

[Arjen Robben]

Well it also ended at 10-8 rather than 26-24 to be fair.