WIMBLEDON, England — Billed as the semifinal undercard, Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro delivered a Centre Court thriller on Friday that muffled Murray mania, at least for a day.

Djokovic, the top seed from Serbia, outslugged No.8 del Potro 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-7 (6-8), 6-3 in four hours and 43 minutes to advance to his second Wimbledon final.

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"Is there another match on?" joked former British Davis Cup captain John Lloyd, when he came off the court after calling the match for BBC TV. "I mean seriously, how could you beat that?"

Andy Murray did his part, too, fending off fiery 6-8 Jerzy Janowicz of Poland. The No. 2 seed from Scotland, bidding to avenge last year's runner-up finish and become the first Brit to capture Wimbledon in 77 years, won 6-7 (2-7), 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 despite a controversial decision to close the Centre Court roof after the third set.

The upshot? After a Wimbledon marked by upsets and injuries, the top two men in the world will clash on Sunday.

"I'm privileged to be a winner of this match," Djokovic said shortly surviving another marathon epic at a major and giving Argentina's del Potro a friendly hug at the net.

"It was a really high-level match during four hours," said 2009 U.S. Open winner del Potro, who was in his first Wimbledon semifinal. "I was so close."

When Djokovic and del Potro left Centre Court to a huge ovation, they had contested the longest semifinal match at in the Open era at Wimbledon — so long, in fact, that Murray and Janowicz took the court after 6 p.m. local time. The previous longest was 4:01 in 1989 when Boris Becker beat Ivan Lendl in five sets.

But it was the quality of play, not merely the length, that made this one memorable.

Fireworks? They came on July 5.

The match featured highlights from both sides of the tennis ledger — Djokovic's elastic defense as he poked balls back at full stretch, and del Potro's Concorde-speed groundstrokes, particularly his supersonic forehand.

When one player seemed ready to seize control of a set, the other resisted with sizzling shotmaking.

Most dramatically, del Potro saved two match points in the fourth-set tiebreaker and then had the first break opportunity at 2-2 in the final set. But Djokovic calmly directed a backhand winner of the line and held on.