Emotional farewell beckons for John Isner at the US Open
He has been a towering presence on the ATP Tour for almost two decades, yet the end is nigh for big-serving American John Isner.
Isner, 38, confirmed his plan to retire at this year’s US Open with an emotional post on his social media feeds, featuring a touching image of his family sitting on the grass courts at Wimbledon.
“There comes a time in every athlete’s career that they have to decide to hang it up. For me, that time is now,” Isner posted on Instagram.
“I didn’t come to this decision lightly, but I feel it is the right way to go. When I left the University of Georgia in 2007, there was no way I could have imagined playing 17 years on the ATP Tour.
“Of course, there are countless matches I wish I could have back, but I am proud of what I was able to accomplish. The journey was nothing short of incredible.”
He will call time on his career after his final match at Flushing Meadows, bringing down the curtain on the career that has seen him establish himself as one of the game’s all-time great servers.
https://twitter.com/JohnIsner/status/1694481816130928906?s=20
According to ATP Stats, Isner holds the record for most career aces with 14,411. No other player has hit the 14,000-ace mark and only five have reached 10,000 aces.
He finished inside the Top 20 of the year-end Pepperstone ATP Rankings for 10 consecutive years from 2010-19 and was the year-end No. 1 American eight times (2012-16 and 2018-20). He reached a career-high World No. 8 in July 2018 after making his first major semi-final at Wimbledon.
Roger Federer and Andy Murray are among those who have suggested Isner’s serve should be recognised as one of the greatest of all-time, with the pace and height he could get on the ball from his 2.08m frame too much to handle for most opponents.
The American was also involved in one of the most famous tennis matches of all-time, as he beat Nicolas Mahut 70-68 in the final set of their epic contest at Wimbledon in 2010.
Isner finally broke the serve of Mahut to secure an unforgettable 70-68 victory in the deciding set of their first-round encounter, which spanned over three days.
After 11 hours and five minutes on Court 18 and with a raft of records having been broken, 23rd seed Isner found two crucial winners to break his opponent’s resistance in the 138th game of an astonishing set.
The pair had first walked on court at 6.13pm on Tuesday, June 22 and Isner secured a 6-4 3-6 6-7 (7/9) 7-6 (7/3) 70-68 triumph at 4.47pm on Thursday, June 24 to bring the curtain down on one of the most remarkable episodes in the All England Club’s history.
Records tumbled…
The match remains by far the longest in tennis history in both number of games – 183 – and time. The final set alone, which lasted eight hours and 11 minutes, was longer than the previous longest match.
The previous Grand Slam record was six hours and 33 minutes set by Fabrice Santoro and Arnaud Clement at the French Open in 2004.
Prior to Isner’s marathon win the previous record for games played in a match was 122, set in 1973 in a Davis Cup match when the USA’s Stan Smith and Erik Van Dillen defeated Chile’s Patricio Cornejo and Jaime Fillol 7–9 37–39 8–6 6–1 6–3.
The previous record for most games in a singles match was 112, set in 1969 when Pancho Gonzales beat Charlie Pasarell 22–24 1–6 16–14 6–3 11–9, also in the first round at Wimbledon.
A plaque is placed on Court 18 at Wimbledon to mark the momentous match, with that incredible contest just one of many legacies Isner will learn behind.
His final matches at the US Open are bound to be emotional and maybe there is one final golden moment for the big man of tennis in the opening week in New York.
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