John Isner saved his best for Key Biscayne’s last.
Isner captured the biggest title of his career–first at the Masters 1000 level–by outlasting Alexander Zverev 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4 in the Miami Open championship match on Sunday afternoon. The 32-year-old fired 18 aces and saved all three of the break points he faced before triumphing in two hours and 20 minutes.
“Last but not least I have to thank you guys,” Isner told the fans at the conclusion of his trophy acceptance speech. “This atmosphere was electric. It was unbelievable. You can’t replicate moments like this. I’m towards the latter part of my career; this is the best moment of my career. And you guys made that possible.”
Those is attendance witnessed a little bit of history, and not just for Isner. Sunday marked the final day of the tournament’s Key Biscayne history before it moves off the island to Hard Rock Stadium starting in 2019, and both players did their best to make it a memorable one.
As expected, this showdown was a competitive one from start to finish. Zverev fought off five break points and Isner thwarted one en route to an unsurprising tiebreaker. The 6’10” American led by a mini-break early, but it was Zverev who seized a sudden mini-break advantage thanks to an Isner double-fault at 4-4. Miami’s fourth seed took care of his next two service points to steal the opening frame of play.
Both men held serve in mostly straightforward fashion through the first eight games of the second, seemingly headed for another tiebreaker. From just about out of nowhere, however, two of the most dramatic games of the contest ensued. Zverev earned a game point on his own serve at 4-4 only to double-fault, shank a forehand, and then watch helplessly as Isner converted break point with a forehand winner off the sideline. But it was not yet smooth sailing to a third set for the world No. 17, who faced two break points himself at 5-4. He saved one when Zverev erred on a backhand pass, survived another by culminating a wild rally with a forehand pass of his own, and eventually clinched the set with a service winner.
From there Isner never relinquished momentum, even though it took him more than a few tries to take control in the third. Zverev escaped one break-point situation at 1-1 and dug out of a 0-40 hole–fighting off four break points in total–at 2-2. But playing with fire soon caught up with the 20-year-old German, who began his 4-4 service game with a double-fault and eventually got broken to 15.
In more typical Isner fashion compared to the difficulty with which he wrapped up the second, the soon-to-be world No. 9 promptly closed out the biggest win of his career at love.
“It’s incredible,” Isner assured. “To come back, as well, after a pretty disappointing first set–a first set I had certainly some chances in and some break points and was serving at 4-3 in the tiebreaker and lost four straight points…. At that point I was actually exhausted. Somewhere along in the second set I found a second wind, and I felt so much better in the second set and the third set than I did in the first set.
“To win like that in front of a crowd like that, with that atmosphere…it was absolutely amazing.”
“I’ll never win here,” Zverev said with a smile when asked what it means for the tournament to be leaving Key Biscayne. “That’s one…. I’m never happy to lose, but if I lose, I’m happy that he won [his] first Masters.”
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