The bottom half of the men’s U.S. Open has been tarred, feathered, and quite simply laughed at over the past two weeks. Kevin Anderson and Sam Querrey are the ones laughing now.

An unheralded quarterfinal matchup on Tuesday night–er, Wednesday morning–resulted in a high-quality, huge-hitting affair won by Anderson 7-6(5), 6-7(9), 6-3, 7-6(9) after three hours and 27 minutes. Anderson fired 22 aces compared to just three double-faults and played two–almost three–incredibly clutch tiebreakers to book a spot in his first career Grand Slam semifinal.

Both men finished with more winners than unforced errors–Anderson 67 to 45 and Querrey 44 to 36. Querrey also reached the 20-ace mark.

Those numbers would have ballooned even high and the match, which ended around 1:50 in the morning, would have ended even later if a wild fourth-set tiebreaker had swung the other way. Querrey had a set point at 7-6, but Anderson took the final three points to cross the finish line.

Had the 6’6” American take things to a fifth, it almost certainly would have led to the latest finish in tournament history (currently three matches tied at 2:26 a.m.).

“It feels really good,” Anderson assured. “It was an incredible match. It was a great match. You know, I have put in a lot of work. It definitely feels good that I have reached some milestone that I haven’t before.”

“It’s fun,” Querrey said when asked how it was playing so late. “I mean, it’s so late, so I know it’s tough for people to stay. But the people that stayed, they were in it, they were loud, they were fun to play in front of. You know, can’t expect a stadium to be full at 2:00 a.m. on a Tuesday.”

Venus Williams and Petra Kviotova, too, played a big part in extending the night session to ungodly hours. A third-set tiebreaker had to separate the two sentimental favorites, with Venus surviving 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(2) after two hours and 34 minutes.

By the way, how amazing is Venus Williams? At 37 years old, her slam results this season are as follows: Australian Open runner-up, French Open fourth round, Wimbledon runner-up, and now U.S. Open semifinals. That is ridiculous. And so is how well Kvitova is playing despite missing the first five months of the year after suffering an awful hand injury in a home invasion.

“(It) definitely felt like a special match,” Venus commented. “No easy moments; not easy to hold serve or break serve. This match meant a lot to me, obviously, playing at home and of course it being a major. It means a lot to her, coming back and being able to compete in this major and to prove obviously to herself that she could defeat anything no matter what’s thrown at her. It was amazing to see her shine today.”