In the early stages of the Miami Open, John Isner said he had about a one in 100 chance of successfully defending his 2018 title.
It may be time to revise those odds.
Isner moved to within two wins of another improbable Miami triumph when he beat Roberto Bautista Agut 7-6(1), 7-6(5) in the quarterfinals at Hard Rock Stadium on Wednesday afternoon. The 6’10” American turned in a typically dominant serving display, blasting 24 aces compared to just one double-fault while putting 74 percent of his first serves in play. He held off Bautista Agut–who upset world No. 1 Novak Djokovic during fourth-round action–after one hour and 45 minutes.
By Isner standards a two-tiebreaker scoreline nothing more than routine, but things got tricky in the second set. In fact, the seventh seed trailed by two mini-breaks at 3-0 in the tiebreaker before mounting an impressive comeback. A final, match-clinching mini-break for Isner came when Bautista Agut netted a forehand at 5-6.
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The world No. 9 has not lost a single set this fortnight and he will be a considerable favorite in his semifinal match on Friday. Suddenly, another Miami title is looking like a legitimate possibility.
Speaking of defying odds, it is none other than 18-year-old Felix Auger-Aliassime who will stand in Isner’s way of the final on Friday. When this season began, Auger-Aliassime was ranked 108th. Breakthrough results during February’s clay-court swing came after the Miami entry deadline, so he had to qualify for the main draw. He successfully did that and has since picked up victories over Casper Ruud, Marton Fucsovics, Hubert Hurkacz, Nikoloz Basilashvili, and Borna Coric.
The Canadian toppled Coric 7-6(3), 6-2 on Wednesday night for what has to be considered the biggest win of his career given the enormity of the occasion.
The semifinal lineup will be rounded out on Thursday when the bottom half of the bracket takes center stage. Roger Federer is facing familiar foe Kevin Anderson after the 37-year-old Swiss took care of Daniil Medvedev 6-4, 6-2 in a rain-delayed fourth-round showdown on Wednesday afternoon.
“I think it’s going to be a bit tricky,” Federer said of his match with Anderson, who upset him in five sets in the 2018 Wimbledon quarters. “He’s got a great serve, so you go back to big-serve mentality to try to hold your own service games first before thinking about how to break Kevin. Had a tough one against him at Wimbledon when I lost. Was able to come back and play a good match against him [at the Nitto ATP Finals] when I really had to in that round-robin match.
“But I think I’m feeling really good. Today’s match I can be really happy with. I hope it’s going to give me some confidence for tomorrow.”
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nice wins
Fed and The Big Dawg….both in 2.
I’ll say Isner in 2 for the simple reason that whilst Felix is a budding top player I don’t think his game is that watertight atm (he still makes a few too many UEs)to hold on to his serve 100% of the time and we all know that’s one of the prerequisites when playing a big server like Isner who is also the best of the giants beyond the serve. If Felix could survive to TBs then he would stand a chance of taking a set or 2 but I doubt he would.