NO LONGER is John Isner simply a 6ft 10in giant who is perceived as a man with a big serve while being as immobile as a skyscraper. Now he can be described as something other than simply Wimbledon’s marathon man.
After beating world No 1 Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells after two hours 48 minutes of intense drama, the 26-year-old American has finally arrived as a player who can compete with the game’s elite and will today contest his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 series final, with $1m (£630,000) on the line for the winner.
After seeing three match points come to nothing, Isner kept his nerve on what surely was his last opportunity and sent down his 21st ace of the match, sizzling out wide and far beyond the helpless swing of the Djokovic backhand to secure a 7-6 3-6 7-6 victory.
This time last year, Djokovic was unbeatable, cruising to a 43-match winning run that was hailed as one of the greatest achievements of modern tennis. After losing to Andy Murray 15 days earlier in the Dubai semi-final, there is a renewed sense of mortality to the Serb but he remains the greatest returner of serve in the game and one of the most exemplary athletes ever to pick up a racket.
Last month, Isner overcame Roger Federer in four sets in the Davis Cup, fending off 11 of 12 break points, but this was a more momentous victory. Djokovic, the defending champion, is the man whose nerve and resolve has got the better of Rafael Nadal in three successive Grand Slam finals but he was rattled by Isner’s power and paid the price.
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Initially it seemed as though Djokovic had formulated the perfect game plan to once again assert his dominance over the 11th-ranked giant, who is more comfortable in American conditions and this year has reached the semi-finals at Delray Beach and quarter-finals in Memphis.
Isner’s serve was broken to love as early as the third game with Djokovic determined to outmanoeuvre his less agile opponent at every available opportunity. But clearly the world No 1 felt intimidated by Isner’s serve, despite winning their two previous contests, both in 2010.
As he served for the first set, Djokovic’s poise suddenly deserted him, first by unaccountably leaving a ball that had obviously bounced right on the baseline and then insisting on a Hawk-Eye challenge when he knew that he had misjudged it. Even worse, he then committed a double fault at a crucial moment of the first tie-break and was left shaking his head after giving away the first set.
Things seemed to have righted themselves in the second, Djokovic squandering just one point on his own serve but Isner, moving around the court not with grace but certainly with purpose, refused to buckle.
Djokovic did his best to intimidate his opponent. He twice played exquisite lobs over the tall man’s head — no mean feat — but as the match wore on he became increasingly more frustrated at his inability to finish off Isner. At times he was yelling at himself in anger but at the other end of the court Isner displayed a serene calm. Isner had match point in the set’s 12th game but a body serve from Djokovic forced him into returning long.
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However, a tie-break against the giant from North Carolina is always the most risky of gambles and so it proved with the American serving first and never falling behind. Costly errors flew off the Djokovic racket and the American held his nerve to secure his place in today’s final.