2011 Sony Ericsson Open: John Isner vs. Kevin Anderson preview
American tennis player John Isner takes on South African pro Kevin Anderson in the fourth round of the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open on Tuesday night at Miami.
The American defeated compatriot Alex Bogomolov Jr. in a straight-sets match in the third round and went on to set up a fourth round encounter with Anderson, who ousted Pablo Andujar of Spain in his own third-round match.
John Isner is currently ranked World Number 33, and is seeded thirtieth at the 2011 ATP World Tour Masters Miami event. He first took part in the tournament in 2009, when he was ranked World Number 134. The American player entered
the main draw as a qualifier, and ousted Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky in the first round of the tournament before falling to Spanish World Number 6 David Ferrer in the second round. His first time as a seeded player at Miami was in 2010, when he had improved
his ranking to World Number 21. The player received a bye into the second round and defeated American pro Michael Russell in the second round before falling to Spanish then-World Number 14 Juan Carlos Ferrero in the third round. He has already improved on
his best results at the tournament with this year’s showing at the fourth round.
Kevin Anderson, on the other hand, is currently ranked World Number 40 and has been playing tennis in a professional capacity since 2007. The player’s first showing at the Miami tournament was in 2008, when he fought his way past
opposition to enter into the main draw as a qualifier. He was ranked World Number 122 at the time, and upset Argentine’s Agustin Calleri in the first round of the tournament to proceed to the next round. Here, he surprised World Number 2 Novak Djokovic by
defeating the player in three sets to move on to a third round match against Igor Andreev of Russia. Andreev defeated him in three sets as well. The 2011 Miami Masters mark the occasion of Anderson’s first appearance as a seeded player at the event.
John Isner and Kevin Anderson have played against each other on four previous occasions, with their first meeting taking place in Las Vegas in 2008. This is the only encounter which Anderson has managed to win. After this, they
met at Queen’s Club in the same year only for Isner to exact revenge on Anderson by defeating him in straight sets. They also met at the 2010 Indian Wells Masters second round, with Isner emerging victorious in straight sets yet again. His last victory over
the South African player was at Atlanta last year, when they met in the semi-final of the tournament. These past results increase the possibility of an American victory in this round of the tournament. If Isner wins the match, he will be setting up a quarterfinal
confrontation against either Djokovic or sixteenth seed Viktor Troicki.
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