In the end, it just wasn’t meant to be Roger Federer‘s year at Wimbledon.
After four hours of hard play on Tuesday at the grass courts of Wimbledon’s All England Lawn Tennis and Racquet Club, the Swiss tennis superstar and championship mainstay fell in a dramatic five-set game against South Africa’s Kevin Anderson.
It was a surprise result that now sends the eighth-seeded Anderson to the semifinals at Wimbledon, his first time making it that far in the storied competition that Federer has won eight times, including last year.
While Federer started out strong, besting Anderson 6-2 and 7-6 in the first few sets, his dominance became less complete as play went on. Federer matched his own record of winning 34 straight sets at this year’s Wimbledon, but Anderson came for him on their third round and found his own edge. The final game was an extensive nail-biter, with Anderson ultimately winning out 13-11. In all, the two battled it out for over four hours.
Anderson, a 2017 U.S. Open runner-up, is now looking good going into the semifinal against either Canada’s Milos Raonic or U.S. competitor John Isner. Others still in the running for this year’s men’s singles title include Spanish star Rafael Nadal and Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro, currently duking it out in their own quarterfinal.
- What We Know So Far About the Deadly Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria
- Beyoncé's Album of the Year Snub Fits Into the Grammys' Long History of Overlooking Black Women
- How the U.S. Shot Down the Alleged Chinese Spy Balloon
- Effective Altruism Has a Toxic Culture of Sexual Harassment and Abuse, Women Say
- Inside Bolsonaro's Surreal New Life as a Florida Man—and MAGA Darling
- 'Return to Office' Plans Spell Trouble for Working Moms
- 8 Ways to Read More Books—and Why You Should
- Why Aren't Movies Sexy Anymore?
- How Logan Paul's Crypto Empire Fell Apart
