LONDON -- Fourteen years ago, Goran Ivanisevic tore up this place.
He pounded 213 aces on the way to the 2001 Wimbledon title. It is said that display of pyrotechnics prompted the All England Club to water down its grass courts, as it were. As a result, aces have dropped off appreciably ever since.
Through five days, Ivo Karlovic leads all players with 95 aces -- in two matches. Second is John Isner, with 92 in most of three matches. Most because his third-round match against Marin Cilic was suspended at 9:20 p.m., local time with the score 10-all in the fifth set.
The match has already run 4 hours, 16 minutes -- the longest of the tournament so far.
Stop us if you'd heard this one before.
Yes, this is the fifth anniversary of Isner's 11-hour, 5-minute match with Nicolas Mahut. Perhaps this was just Isner's way of saluting the epic match.
Cilic -- whose coach is the legendary Ivanisevic -- has actually out-aced the 6-foot-10 American in this match 34-31. The match will conclude Saturday.
In the meantime, here are the three Friday matches involving U.S. men:
Marin Cilic-John Isner, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-7 (4), suspended at 10-10 in the fifth
It has been seven years since Cilic last lost to an American; James Blake defeated him at the 2008 Australian Open.
Cilic holds a 4-0 head-to-head edge against Isner, but the American has a chance. Isner battled back Friday to force a fifth set.
Denis Kudla def. Santiago Giraldo, 6-2, 6-7 (3), 2-6, 6-1, 6-3
Over the years, the 22-year-old from Arlington, Virginia, via the Ukraine has played nine Grand Slam singles tournaments, and the best he could ever do was three brief visits to the second round.
Well, this time around at the All England Club he's equaled that three-win total -- in a span of five days.
Down two sets to one, Kudla rallied to defeat the Colombian in a five-set match that ran six minutes shy of three hours.
The numbers were impressive: 16 aces, 52 winners (balanced against 47 unforced errors) and seven service breaks in nine opportunities.
Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan def. Steve Johnson and Sam Querrey 6-1, 5-7, 7-6 (3), 6-3
A third-set tiebreaker proved the pivotal period as the No. 1-seeded Bryans finished strong in an all-American second-round doubles match.
Johnson and Querrey combined for 19 aces, 12 more than the 37-year-old California twins, but the Bryans managed to break their opponents two more times.
The brothers will meet unseeded Mate Pavic and Michael Venus in a third-round match.