SOUTH African giant Kevin Anderson has reached his first grand slam semi-final after completing one of the most thrilling matches seen on the circuit this year.

Anderson battled it out with the 17th-seeded Sam Querrey in an epic four-set struggle lasting until the early hours of the morning (US time).

Neither player wanted to give an inch as they toiled through three tiebreaks, which included this incredible exchange at the net late in the fourth.

ICYMI:



WILD exchange at the net between @KAndersonATP and Querrey deep in the 4th set tiebreaker...



What a match.#USOpen pic.twitter.com/2nfkdgr04T — US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 6, 2017

Querrey gave Anderson a headache while trying to save the match, surviving countless match points and causing the South African some serious trouble with his booming serve.

But Anderson finally prevailed before the clock hit 2am, forcing the US star into hitting a forehand long while on match point and taking the match 7-6 6-7 6-3 7-6.

Anderson became the first South African to advance to the semi-final round at Flushing Meadows since the dawn of the Open era. Only Pablo Carreno Busta stands in his way of a shot at the final, who will feature either Roger Federer, Juan Martin del Potro, Rafael Nadal or youngster Andrey Rublev.

“I just wanted to thank everyone,” the exhausted 31-year-old said after the match. “It’s 2am in the morning and you guys stuck out here, so I really appreciate it.

“To play in one of the most famous courts in the world at night & to get through, it feels fantastic.”

Either Kevin Anderson or Pablo Carreno Busta will be in a Slam final. Remarkable #usopen — Andrew Jerell Jones (@sluggahjells) September 6, 2017

What a bonkers match. That was fun. Kevin Anderson hit some unreal shots and deserved to win #USOpen pic.twitter.com/LYDHEftb48 — Kelyn Soong (@KelynSoong) September 6, 2017

FEDERER OVERSHADOWING TENNIS REVIVAL

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal aren’t the only ones who have picked up tennis’s fountain of youth this year and downed its contents like Bob Hawke skolling a beer at the SCG.

Venus Williams might not be wearing self-lacing sneakers but her performance in 2017 has been every bit Back to the Future.

After not being seen in a grand slam final since 2009, the older Williams sister is now one win away from making her third of the season after edging Petra Kvitova in three sets in their quarterfinal on Wednesday.

The 6-3 3-6 7-6 (7-2) triumph continued a revival that is the match of anything Nadal has achieved this season — and only falls short of Federer because the seven-time slam champion’s failed to lift a major trophy to this point.

The Swiss maestro bounced back from an extended injury lay-off to defeat his Spanish rival in the final of this year’s Australian Open — the first time he’d won a major crown since 2012. He continued to thrive at Wimbledon midway through 2017 when he picked up his eighth title at the All England Club.

Nadal too has defied age and an ailing body, claiming an astonishing 10th French Open title in June.

But really what Williams is doing baffles belief.

Since 2011 she’s basically been unable to challenge in the second week of slams. Quarter-final appearances at the Australian and US Opens in 2015 ended a four-year run without an appearance in the final eight, before she wound back the clock to make the semis at Wimbledon the following year.

But this year has been something else. Williams began the season by making the final at Melbourne Park — where she fell to sister Serena — before a fourth-round exit at Roland Garros matched her best French Open result in more than a decade.

A dream run to the Wimbledon final — where she was swept aside by Garbine Muguruza — followed. And the fun is continuing at Flushing Meadows.

Have we mentioned she’s 37 years old?

Williams has returned to the world’s top 10 and will see her ranking climb even higher if she can take care of unseeded Sloane Stephens in the first all-American women’s semi-final in New York since 2002.

Putting her renaissance in perspective, that’s a year after Williams won the most recent of her two US Open titles.

Kvitova, seeded 13th, was hoping to prolong her comeback from a knife attack less than nine months ago by reaching the first U.S. Open semi-final of her career. She needed surgery on her racket-holding hand after she was cut by an intruder at her home in the Czech Republic in December.

She returned to the tour at the French Open in May, losing in the second round there and at Wimbledon. Kvitova has said she still does not have full strength in her left hand.

But she was often at her powerful best against No. 9 Williams, especially in the last two sets, repeatedly delivering big, flat forehands. Neither woman played with a ton of subtlety, mainly trading stinging groundstrokes from the baseline on exchanges that grew in intensity as the 2-hour, 34-minute encounter went along. Williams, who revealed in 2011 she had been diagnosed with an energy-sapping auto-immune disease, is the oldest women’s semi-finalist at any Grand Slam tournament since Martina Navratilova at Wimbledon in 1994.

Williams will face unseeded Sloane Stephens on in the first all-American women’s semifinal in New York since 2002. Stephens advanced earlier on Wednesday with a 6-3 3-6 7-6 (7-4) victory over 16th-seeded Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia. It is Stephens’ deepest run at any major since 2013 and the apex of a recovery from foot surgery in January.

There could be another US vs. US semifinal on the other side of the draw as 15th-seeded Madison Keys and 20th-seeded CoCo Vandeweghe play their quarterfinals on Thursday.

“It’s been a great two weeks for American tennis. Seeing all the American players in the draw and all of them advancing so deep and competing so well,” Williams said. “It’s great to see this resurgence, and I hope it can continue.”

Stephens, ranked 83rd, has won 13 of her past 15 matches, all on hard courts, reaching the semifinals at three consecutive tournaments for the only time in her career.

She had an operation in January, and while forced to stay away from her sport, she found a new appreciation for it. The time off also allowed her to enjoy other aspects of life.

“I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t do all the things that I wanted to do. But I did get to hang out with my family and see my little cousin’s soccer games and go to weddings and baby showers and stuff. All the things that I thought before I was missing out on, (now) I really wasn’t,” said Stephens.

“It was just kind of, like, eye-opening,” Stephens added. “When I wasn’t playing, like, of course I loved my time off, but when I got back to playing tennis, it was, like, this is where I want to be. This is what I love doing.”

In the men’s quarterfinals, 12th-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain had no trouble beating No. 29 Diego Schwartzman of Argentina 6-4 6-4 6-2. It was Carreno Busta’s first match of the tournament against an opponent who was not a qualifier.

Carreno Busta’s debut in a grand slam semifinal will come against No. 17 Sam Querrey of the US or No. 28 Kevin Anderson of South Africa, who were scheduled to play on Wednesday.

“I know that I didn’t win matches against top players — top-10 or top-20 players,” Carreno Busta said. “But I am very happy with my tournament.”

— with AP