Miami Open presented by Itaú champion John Isner reflects on his breakthrough win in Florida and looks ahead to the beginning of his clay-court season at the Mutua Madrid Open. Watch live tennis at tennistv.com.
John Isner coolly steps to the baseline like he has thousands of times before. He bounces the ball between the legs of his 6’10” frame, and then again off the court three times with his racquet, and four times with his hand. Just as he lifts his left arm to toss the ball into the air, slightly in front of him, his racquet-wielding right arm begins its own upward motion simultaneously. The 32-year-old eventually launches toward the sky and at the last moment, Isner turns his wrist so the stringbed meets the ball, producing a devastating result. Isner sends the ball flying as if he is wielding Thor’s hammer. The result is a blazing 138 mile-per-hour ace down the 'T'...
A trio of former Huoston titlists took to the red dirt on Thursday, and all three advanced to the quarter-finals. Top seed and 2013 champion John Isner claimed his eighth match in a row, winning 93 per cent of his first-serve points (28/30) to beat Switzerland's Henri Laaksonen 6-4, 6-2 in only 65 minutes at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship. Isner, No. 9 in the ATP Rankings, is fresh off his maiden ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title at the Miami Open presented by Itau. The 32-year-old will next face countryman and defending champion Steve Johnson, who saved six of seven break points to beat #NextGenATP American Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 6-4. [ALSO LIKE] The sixth-seeded Johnson...
The ATP World Tour players saw the same devastating photos from Hurricane Harvey in Houston, and they all asked the same question: “How can we help?” Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan, Frances Tiafoe, John Isner, Kevin Anderson and Sam Querrey compete at tournaments around the world, and they all call somewhere else “home” when they're not traveling. Yet they still thought of Houston as Hurricane Harvey dumped about 30 inches of rain and displaced almost 30,000 people in the southeastern Texas city last August. “From the start, 'It was how can we help? How can we make a difference? How do we help get Houston back on its feet?'” said Bronwyn Greer, Tournament Director at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S....
Looking back on it, it was weird that I hadn't heard from Mom in a few days. We usually talked every day, sometimes more, even if I was busy with tennis and classes at the University of Georgia. It was February 2004, and I was in the second semester of my freshman year. We were beginning our spring tennis season, my game was in a good place, and we had just finished another weekend of matches. Life was good. But when I woke up at around 8 a.m. in my McWhorter Hall dorm room to two missed calls, I thought something was definitely up. Maybe something had happened to one of my grandparents? Maybe, but surely nothing to Mom, not...
