Andy Roddick beat Younes El Aynaoui 4-6 7-6 4-6 6-4 21-19 in an epic encounter today to become the youngest man in 11 years to reach the semi-finals of the Australian Open.
The 20-year-old American saved a match point and twice came back from a set down to win the longest match at the Australian Open since tiebreaks were introduced to the event in 1971.
Roddick saved a match point on serve in the 10th game but failed to serve out the match after breaking the Moroccan for the first time in the set in the 21st game.
He broke an exhausted El Aynaoui again in the 39th game before serving it out to seal victory one minute short of five hours.
Roddick plays Rainer Schuettler in Friday's second semi-final after the German beat David Nalbandian 6-3 5-7 6-1 6-0 earlier in the day.
El Aynaoui (31) beat world number one Lleyton Hewitt in the fourth round.
The 83 games played in the match beat the previous record of 73 when Yannick Noah beat Roger Smith 6-7 5-7 6-4 6-2 16-14 in 1988.
The deciding set, which lasted almost two and a half hours, also broke Noah and Smith's record for the longest fifth set ever played at Melbourne since tennis turned professional.
