Something will have to give in a surprising but intriguing Miami Open final, because both Alexander Zverev and John Isner are absolutely on fire heading into Sunday’s showdown.
Their reward for such scorching-hot form is a fourth career head-to-head contest and participation in the closing match at Crandon Park before the Masters 1000 tournament moves away from Key Biscayne next year. Zverev is sweeping the series 3-0, including 2-0 on hard courts. The German prevailed 6-4, 6-2 at the 2016 Shanghai Masters, 6-7(5), 7-6(7), 7-6(5) during third-round action last season in Miami, and 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-1 shortly thereafter in Rome.
There seemed to be little chance that these two Saddlebrook training mates and one-time doubles partners (2016 Toronto Masters) would meet again in Miami when they landed on opposite sides of the draw. After all, nothing suggested Isner–especially–would make a run to the championship match. The 6’10” American had been a mere 2-6 in 2018 prior to this fortnight, but he has suddenly reeled off victories over Jiri Vesely, Mikhail Youzhny, Marin Cilic, Hyeon Chung, and Indian Wells champion Juan Martin Del Potro. Isner has won nine consecutive sets and put on an especially stunning display while beating an understandably tired Del Potro 6-1, 7-6(2) on Friday.
“Things are just clicking,” the world No. 17 assured. “If I’m returning well and getting in return games, that should bode well for me given how I serve. (I’m) very happy it’s all sort of coming together right now…. I just know with my game, if I’m doing the right things, it doesn’t really matter who I’m playing; I’m going to be very tough to beat.”
Nobody has come close to beating Zverev since he was pushed to three sets by Daniil Medvedev and David Ferrer much earlier in the event. Miami’s No. 4 seed promptly raised his level to defeat Nick Kyrgios, Borna Coric, and Pablo Carreno Busta, and his last eight sets have resulted in scorelines of 6-2, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, 7-6(4), 6-2.
Zverev, who is now 13-4 for his 2018 campaign, is one win away from a third career Masters 1000 title–having triumphed last season in Rome and Montreal. He is also 6-3 lifetime in ATP finals, including a 5-1 record in 2017. Isner, on the other hand, is 0-3 in Masters 1000 finals and 0-7 in finals above the 250-point level (12-5 in 250-point finals). Granted, his Masters 1000 final losses have come at the hands of Roger Federer (2012 in Indian Wells), Rafael Nadal (2013 in Cincinnati), and Andy Murray (2016 in Paris). It may get a little bit easier–but not by much–against Zverev.
“Sascha, I mean, he’s the best young player this game has,” Isner praised.
In what is likely to be a competitive, high-quality encounter, Zverev’s confidence from his past Masters 1000 success and his 3-0 record against Isner may be the difference.
Pick: Zverev in 3
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Even though Isner has managed to increase his 1st serve % to 67% from low 60s at the end of the 1st set.
Isner’s service game has improved significantly after the first set, 1st and 2nd serve points won
Code violation Zverez lol
Zverez really wanted this masters after a poor start to the year, he probably wont see anothe opportunity the US hardcourt season later in the year. Poor kid.
AZ is hardly poor. And if he keeps playing well there’s no reason he shouldn’t have some shots during the NA hardcourt swings. Slams? I dunno, maybe not yet, but he’ll probably start doing better at those. Still, if Murray, Roger and Rafa come back strong and Djokovic breaks out of his slump, who knows? But the Big Four have to go down sometime, more’s the pity.
Wow. Props to Isner. Despite not having to face any Big 4, he did have to beat two major champions, as well as a two-time Masters champ to get this title. Impressive for him.
So happy for Big John right now. One of the nicest people on tour, just a really good guy.
YES!! So happy for him. Wins his first masters title at THIRTY TWO YEARS OLD!! And he fully deserved it. Hit some of the best groundstrokes I’ve ever seen from him down the stretch. A couple HUGE forehands in that 4-4 game. Well deserved Big John. I feel a big clay season coming for him.
When you think about it, Isner deserved a Masters after all those big matches he played against the top players. Took Nadal to 5 sets at RG from memory, beat Fed/Djokovic etc in some big matches and Davis Cup etc.
Great win for Isner. After blowing those three break points at 2-2 in the 3rd it would have been easy to fold and let Zverev take it, especially because John was really feeling the heat by that point. But he composed himself, held serve, and waited for his next chance. A long time coming and very well deserved.
A tough loss for Alex, but he’ll collect a lot more of these titles in the future.
Congrats to the Big Dawg! Well deserved. He played great all week and he had a very tough start to the year.
Beyond happy for Isner! It was a pleasure to see him react so ecstatically after the win!