Kyrgios wins second ATP title, stops Isner’s reign in Atlanta

Nick Kyrgios captured his second career ATP title on Sunday, taking down John Isner 7-6(3), 7-6(4) in the final of the BB&T Atlanta Open. Kyrgios matched his huge-serving opponent with 18 aces en route to triumphing in one hour and 46 minutes.

Not too surprisingly, there were zero service breaks the entire way–but that almost was not the case. In his very first service game at 0-1 of the opening set, Kyrgios fell into a 0-40 hole. But Isner missed his only real chance by failing to put a second-serve backhand return in the court and the 21-year-old powered to a hold from there.

“If I go up 2-0, there’s a good chance that set’s over,” Isner explained. “I think that settled him down…. I keep going back to that second game of the match. He came up with some really good serves. Credit to him; that’s why he’s ranked really high. He’s one of the best servers on tour, I would say.”

As such, the opener was all but over when Isner threw away his first service point of the tiebreaker with an unforced error. Kyrgios added another mini-break for 4-0, which was more than enough because he won all five of his service points.

Isner earned another opportunity in the second set with a break point at 5-5, but Kyrgios erased it with an unreturnable serve. That set the stage for a topsy-turvy ‘breaker, which featured six mini-breaks. Isner held a brief advantage, but he double-faulted at 3-2 and again on the Australian’s second championship point at 4-6.

“I felt like I put myself in position to win that set,” the 6’10” American said. “I just sort of fell apart…. I didn’t quite come up too clutch there in the second set.

“He played better than I did today. Of course it was very small margins, bit it seems like all week he was motivated and controlled himself pretty well all week. And he did that again today.”

“I knew it was going to be tough from the get-go,” Kyrgios commented. “I knew that I had to come up with some special stuff today and I thought I did. In the tiebreaks, I didn’t really miss a ball. It just came down to a couple of points; a couple lucky points here or there. I just did all the right things today. I thought I stayed calm; I just kind of rode it out.”

Kyrgios was making his first appearance in Atlanta and the end result was another title on the heels of what was a dominant performance this February on the indoor hard courts of Marseille.

“In Marseille was playing unbelievable,” the world No. 18 reflected. “I thought I was 10-feet tall and unbeatable. It doesn’t matter who you put in front of me that week, I thought I’d pretty much crush ’em. This week was completely different. I was battling physically; wasn’t playing great at all at the start of the week. I came probably off my worst career loss last week. I wasn’t in a good space at all, to be honest. I wasn’t expecting a title this week. I guess some things you can’t really explain.”

Isner, on the other hand, is the face of this Atlanta tournament and for whom success at this annual U.S. Open Series event is second nature. Even with Sunday’s loss, he is still 24-4 lifetime in Atlanta with three titles and three runner-up performances. He has never lost prior to the semifinals in seven appearances.

“It was a pretty encouraging week for me,” the former University of Georgia star concluded. “This is my first final since this tournament last year. So it’s been a while. It’s hard to make [finals]; guys are good out there.”