Roger Federer, Kevin Anderson give U.S. Open wins with a special stature

It was Jack in the Beanstalk night at the U.S. Open tennis tournament Monday.

When it finally ended, after hours of dripping drama and wild entertainment, one giant was standing tall and the other was chopped down.

Kevin Anderson is 6 feet 8. He is a South African who was a three-year All-American at the University of Illinois. He serves as if he has a cannon, not a racket.

He beat Andy Murray, 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (0). That last tiebreaker number is not a typo.

Murray was seeded third, has won the title here and had reached the quarterfinals in the last 18 major tournaments in which he competed. The giant stomped on that.

John Isner is 6 feet 10. He is the top-ranked U.S. men’s player at No. 13. He was a four-year All-American at the University of Georgia. His serves are so big and fast they need to be declared a safety hazard.

When he entered the match against legendary Roger Federer, seeded No. 2 here and the holder of more major titles than any other man in history (17), Isner had not lost a service game at the U.S. Open since the third round in 2013. Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany did that and he should have that racket bronzed.

Since then, Isner had held serve in all 54 of his games last year here, and 39 leading into the Federer match. He got that to 110 straight service holds and then was broken by Federer at 5-6 of the final set.

The Federer-Isner scores were a fairly typical John Isner match. Federer won, 7-6 (0), 7-6 (6), 7-5. You can’t break Isner’s serve, he can’t break yours, so you play tiebreakers. They ought to just start his matches at 6-6.

Monday night was calm and warm, perfect Labor Day weather for tennis.

Anderson beat Murray on the second largest court here, Armstrong. Federer beat Isner on the main Ashe Stadium Court. Both were packed. Both kept thousands of fans dazzled.

Those who didn’t have tickets to either of the two big courts stood mesmerized outside the main entrance to Ashe, watching on the big screens and riding the same emotional roller coaster as those inside.

Some of the side shows were as wild as the tennis.

Murray, the British hero who finally brought his country a Wimbledon title in 2013 after 77 years, got especially testy when he went down two sets to love. It was never clear what set him off, but he went to his chair and uttered an expletive multiple times, 19 at best count caught by the microphone near the umpire’s chair.

Later, when he missed a shot at the end of a game, he smashed his racket several times, took it to his chair, smashed it some more and then handed the leftovers to a group of fans who had been most vocal in supporting him. The cheered as if they’d won the lottery.

During the Federer-Isner match, the big screen flashed to a man holding an engagement ring. His shocked fiancee stood, realized she was being proposed to, and slipped it on her finger. Then she gave her man a hug.

Minutes later, Federer was back at it, his service hold lasting about as long as the ring ceremony.

Earlier, they flashed a picture on the screen of Alex Rodriguez, the controversial Yankee who was in the crowd. It booed him almost as heartily as it cheered the man with the ring.

Murray and Anderson started in daylight and ended in the dark, playing the longest match of the tournament, 4 hours 18 minutes.

Tiebreakers ending at 7-0 are rare. Fans got treated to two. That’s how Anderson closed out Murray, skunking the third-best player in the world in the decider.

An hour or so later, Federer did it to Isner, who has played 429 tiebreakers and never before lost one, 7-0.

But it was in the second tiebreaker that Federer left fans in disbelief.

Isner was throwing 135-mph bullets at him, and he rocketed one wide to Federer’s forehand at 6-6. For most humans, success would be seeing the ball. Federer, long ago proven to be beyond normal flesh and blood, smacked a forehand winner down the line. Then, with Federer serving at set point and 7-6, Isner got the ball deep to Federer’s backhand corner and approached. Federer stepped in and passed him down the line, the ball landing directly on the paint.

“The second tiebreaker was massive,” Federer said. “I wasn’t feeling that good going into it, but at the end, I picked the right sides to play to.”

Isner said afterward he would have loved to play as well as he did against somebody else.

“But he came up with the goods,” Isner said. “That’s why he is who he is.”

Murray said he loved the crowd on Armstrong.

“I was trying to use their energy,” he said.

Anderson was teased afterward for his stoic demeanor throughout he match by broadcaster Brad Gilbert, who talked him into giving the fans a big fist pump. It wasn’t Tiger Woods, but it was passable.

If Anderson had thought about it, he could have merely credited his success over Britain’s Murray to the great words of a fellow giant, who once said, “Fi fi fo fum. I smell the blood of an Englishman.”

bill.dwyre@latimes.com