John Isner crashes out to Jurgen Melzer in quarters – Regions Morgan Keegan Championships 2012
Top seeded John Isner bowed out to Austrian number one, Jurgen Melzer, in straight sets at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships 2012 on Friday. He suffered a 3-6, 6-7(6) shock at the hands of the 30-year-old in the quarter-finals at this ATP (Association
of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 500 series tournament held in Memphis, United States.
The highest ranked local star, Isner not only extended the trail in the FedEx ATP Head 2 Head series by 0-2 against the Austrian but also squandered a chance to avenge his defeat at this event four years ago.
“Don’t want to lose in the quarterfinals, but you know, I don’t feel like I lost this match today, which is a good thing,” said the highest ranked player of the event. “He won it. He was better than me, and he deserved it, really. I thought he played really
well. That’s all there is to it. I just ran up against a guy who’s clicking on all cylinders.”
Ranked 13th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings, Isner displayed dismal performance in the opening set. The American failed to ward off any of the two breakpoints he encountered and was unsuccessful in clobbering any break opportunity.
As a result, Isner suffered a disappointing 3-6 defeat.
The 26-year-old raised the bar of his game in the following set and smoothly bagged entire serves after saving both breakpoints he faced. However, he failed to capitalise on any of the two break chances and dragged the set to a tie-breaker. Isner trailed
in it and consequently registered a 6-7(6) loss.
The left-handed Austrian on the other hand ruled throughout the 81-minute match. He impressively clicked 33 out of 41 points on his first serve share and ended the match with 75 points.
“It’s very nice to beat the top seed, but for me it’s more important that my game is getting better,” Melzer was quoted in post-match conference.
The world number 38 will advance to confront the third seed, Radek Stepanek, who crushed the local wild card entrant, Sam Querrey, with a bagel to set-up this duel.
The Czech star outmuscled Querrey for the first time in their third outing. He lost his serve once but broke the American’s serve four times to seal the deal with a 7-6(5), 6-0 success. Stepanek also formulated a better first serve share and amazingly marked
24 out of 31 points on it.
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