IT will go down as Wimbledon 2013's duel in the sun.
Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro spent all afternoon sorting out their semi-final man-to-man, taking it in turns to batter a small yellow ball into submission amid sweltering temperatures in south west London. It was taut, nervous, attritional, and basically everything a semi-final should be. And, when four hours and 43 minutes worth of dust had settled, it was the Serb who had reaffirmed his supremacy with a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (6), 6-3 win to arrive in his 11th major final.
Afterwards the world No.1 – vanquished in a similar contest against Rafael Nadal last month at the French Open – was confident he had not put his body through too much in the process. "Physically, even though we played five sets, and there were a lot of falls, sliding, running, long exchanges, I still feel I'm okay," he said. "I have been in worse situations before where I managed to feel fresh and play another six hours. But I know I have been pushed to the limit. It was one of the most thrilling matches I have ever played, especially here at Wimbledon. It was cat and mouse throughout the match."
If an emotional Djokovic was the winner – dropping to his knees in relief, bumping his chest with a fist, then pointing to his corner – Del Potro was the moral victor. The Argentine completed a tour of every area of the court yesterday, crossing the net for a few chats with his opponent, and generally defying that heavy strapping on his left knee to become an unlikely darling of the Centre Court crowd. It was as if that little misunderstanding over Las Malvinas never happened.
He even accepted the nickname of 'Del Boy', which he was christened by one Cockney wag – "I have a few nicknames, so one more, it's okay," he said – and acknowledged that the two players had spent much of the afternoon enquiring after each other's respective aches and strains.
Djokovic went in as a clear favourite but the following exchanges suggested this was anybody's contest. Both men came into the tie without having dropped a set – the first Wimbledon semi-final in which that has been the case – while they could each take comfort from their past record; the Serb having won eight of their 11 meetings, while the Argentine claimed victory in their only one on grass, just 12 months ago in the Olympic bronze medal match, and also triumphing in the last meeting on tour, at Indian Wells in March.
Del Potro required treatment and some more of those "magic pills" on Centre Court but as he scampered about and belted away forehands of up to 120 mph the only available prognosis was that he was some kind of medical miracle.
With both men thundering shots from the service line, at first any point won against the serve was a cause for celebration. They were each living on their wits, involved in the kind of struggle where every missed opportunity took a huge physiological and psychological toll, and the very worst thing you could do was think you were safe. After one early break point on the Del Potro serve was saved, suddenly a drained Djokovic was doing well to hold his own. A couple of errant Del Potro efforts later, as he served at 5-6, and suddenly the set had gone.
Losing the first set might have sunk the Argentine but instead he remained buoyant. Having scrapped for his life to save four break points, he was immediately presented with three more on the Djokovic serve and, having broken for 4-3, Del Potro held his own serve before closing the set out to love, countering the Serb's drop shot with one of his own.
Djokovic composed himself and should have taken the third set before a one-sided tie-break, the key point of which was a miss-hit Del Potro smash into the net while the Serb was prone behind the baseline.
Djokovic went for a toilet break before the fourth set but his reprieve was brief as he returned to duke it out with the Argentine once more. Cue another meeting on the Djokovic side of the net as Del Potro pondered whether to use a challenge on a running forehand down the line. "I said 'if I was you, I would challenge'," said Djokovic later. "He said: 'no, you know it's out, and don't waste my challenge'."
After the trade of two more service breaks, the match went were into another fraught tie-break. Each man surrendered a point needlessly in mid-rally to a Hawkeye challenge. Del Potro saved two match points – waving his racket vainly in hope a lob dropped long – before a crunching backhand took it 8-6.
It was already the longest Wimbledon semi-final in history, and the match of the tournament, but it still had some way to run. The Serb broke his opponent for 5-3 and then Del Potro spurned a chance to break back, enabling Djokovic to clinch his third match point. "I hit many winners, and the ball always came back," said Del Potro.
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