John Isner claws down Gilles Simon in fourth round – US Open 2011
With the US Open 2011 swirling up as an all star event, John Isner moved into his first Grand Slam quarterfinal defeating the higher ranked Gilles Simon with his stimulating performance to bring more joy to locals after his fellow
compatriot, Andy Roddick gave the first smiles.
Playing at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, the remaining 4th round matches of the final Grand Slam of the season were finally wrapped up. The classic Isner match, on court 17 on Thursday, 8th September,
ended off with the first, third and the fourth sets going into tiebreakers.
The 26-year-old came up with a win with giant serves that drowned the French world No.12 instantly 7-6(2), 3-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(4) in four hours and five minutes.
Although, the Frenchman was well above the American in ranking, Isner took the advantage of playing at home and his vicious height. Simon, on the other hand struggled the first time rival. Statistically, the former world No.6 was
considered much more agile and adaptive and an all-court player with major weapons in his arsenal. However, his loss was still imaginable.
Kicking off with the opening game, Simon had an early break and took a two games lead winning game 2 on his serve, 2-0. Isner won game 3 and broke back in game 4 to level the scores at 2-2. Moving on, the two levelled up at 3-3,
4-4 and then on 5-5 before the two broke each other, one after the other, to end up in a tiebreak.
Isner, however, perfected the tiebreak and took a one set lead in the match winning 7-6(2).
The match boiled up instantly as Isner broke early in set 2, however, fell short on his serve in game 2. With scores levelled at 1-1. Simon thrashed the back-to-back game breaking the local lad in game 4 and stood with a 4-1 lead.
Easing away with two more serve, the Frenchman took away the second set 6-3 to level the match score at 1-1.
Firing up with set 3, Isner began to hit his stride with the home crowd roaring for their player. Holding each of his service games and blazing 12 hot aces, Isner equalled the Frenchman at each point before the two went down for
another tiebreak game. The 26-year-old local lad once again took the match lead winning the tiebreak 7-2 and the set 7-6(2).
With the decider set on its way, Isner and Simon swapped over early breaks once again and then remained on serve to halt the match in another tiebreak. winning an amazing tiebreak game,7-4, and extending his longest winning streak
to 9 straight fixtures, Isner went on walking into his first ever Grand Slam quarter-final.
Talking about his maiden quarterfinal appearance at a Grand Slam event, the American giant said, "I never made a Grand Slam quarterfinal before, so it's definitely up there. It feels good to get that one done with and over with."
Seeded 28th, the mighty American will now defend his winning streak against the 4th seed, Andy Murray in the quarter-final match of the US Open 2011.
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