John Isner is no stranger to Wimbledon marathons. He came out on top, of course, in the most famous one–a 70-68 in the fifth set epic against Nicolas Mahut in 2010. But he’s lost a few, too, and that proved to be the case again on Sunday at the All-England Club.
After darkness delayed Isner’s third-round contest against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Saturday, the two players returned to the court on what was the first tennis installment of middle Sunday since 2004. Tsonga trailed two sets to one when the match was postponed, but he continued his comeback about 16 hours later and ended up surviving 6-7(3), 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-2, 19-17.
Isner had two virtual match points to close things out on Saturday, when he led 15-40 on Tsonga’s serve at 5-5 in the third set. But the world No. 12 saved both break points, eventually stole the set in a tiebreaker, and thus lived to see another day.
At 16-15 in the fifth, Isner had an actual match point but Tsonga again was too clutch on his own serve. It was all but over when the 6’10” American finally dropped serve at 17-17, after which Tsonga converted a second match point of his own at 18-17, 40-15 to clinch victory.
“A little bit; a little bit,” the Frenchman said when asked if thoughts of Isner vs. Mahut crept into his mind during the latter stages of the fifth set. “The most important today was to win and continue. I was focused on the game and not really on the other things. But to be honest, yeah, once I said, ‘Maybe it’s going to be long like Nicolas.'”
Unfortunately for Isner, the result was not the same as the 11-hour, five-minute grind six years ago.
“He was serving very well and I knew the match could go a long way, but I wasn’t thinking about what happened [against Mahut],” Isner noted. “You know, I had a chance (on match point) and he came up with a good serve. I had some chances yesterday; (he) came up with good serves every time. That’s why he’s, you know, one of the best players in our game.”
Speaking of one of the best, Roger Federer will face Steve Johnson when fourth-round action headlines arguably the best schedule of play of the entire tennis calendar on Monday. With Isner out, Johnson is one of just two remaining American men in the bracket. The other is Sam Querrey, who shocked world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in four sets on Saturday.
Querrey, interestingly, will go up against Mahut with a spot in the quarterfinals at stake.
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Saw a lot of Mahut at Wdon last week. His win over Ferrer on Ct 16 was a clinic….he played as well as I’ve EVER seen him. I’ll pick him in 4. ….and I like Gasquet over a tired Tsonga in 4.