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Xan Brooks, the Guardian's associate editor who made a new name for himself live-blogging yesterday's mega-match at Wimbledon, is making his mark today in Los Angeles media. He's a guest of Warren Olney's on "To The Point" pretty much right now on KCRW — it will re-air this evening in the 7 p.m. hour. Producer Gary Scott says he was hilarious: "it was like a Monty Python sketch." Brooks also has a date to be on with Patt Morrison on KPCC this afternoon.
Blog sample from yesterday:
4.45pm: It's ace number 62 for John Isner in the Never-Ending Story of Court 18, a tournament record. But, incredibly, Mahut seems to be coming back at him. He forges his way to the first deuce of the set thanks to a backhand lob that somehow gets over the head of the American, who stands six-foot-nine in his stockinged feet. Both men, as has been established, are now dead on their feet, although the Frenchman looks the marginally less rotten (a few less worms wriggling from his eye sockets).Naturally Isner holds on, He staggers, sightless, to the net and scrapes off a desperate drop volley for a winner. The American now leads 24-23. But inevitably we are still on serve.
"No!" screams a gang of reporters. "Nooo!" I think that they are lamenting the match, but of course they are lamenting the football. On the other side of the world, Slovenia just came close to scoring.
4.50pm: It's over. It's finally over. It was a long, hard match and it took its toll on the players. But finally, at long last, we have a result.
I'm actually talking about the football here. England win 1-0 against Slovenia to go through to the knock-out stage. The Isner-Mahut match is still ongoing: 24-24 in the final set. Isner's leg has just dropped off.
The match ended this morning — at an incredible 70-68.