John Isner ends Dudi Sela’s run in second round – Winston-Salem Open 2011
Taking the charge, John Isner walked off into the 2nd round of Winston-Salem Open 2011 with a bye in the 1st round. However, his second round fixture was against the enthusiastic Israeli, Dudi Sela. Playing
at the Wake Forest University, Winston Salem, USA the local lad fought for 77 minutes and put forward an unbreakable defence to take the win 7-6, 6-2.
Ranked world No.28, Isner started off as a pro in 2007 winning 2 titles in his four year run. The right-hander has been much more successful this year than previous of his any. Winning the Campbell’s Tennis Championship at Newport,
the former world No.18 then made it to the finals of Legg Mason Tennis Classic where he lost to his fellow countryman and world No.7, Mardy Fish.
Contrary to Isner, Sela, also aged 26, has been playing professionally since 2002. However, he could reach up as high as world No.29. The Israeli had an equal chance of winning considering the circuit; nevertheless, playing a 6’9”
giant was certainly a tough run for him.
Playing for the very first time, the two started off with the 2nd round match with Sela serving first and rolling down the scorecard. Isner followed as saved a breakpoint and levelled up the scores. The set continued
as none of the two won any breakpoints and levelled up at 2-2, 4-4, and eventually in a tiebreaker.
The 6’9” gigantic American led from the front to win the tiebreaker and the set 7-6(3). Isner totalled an amazing 44 points in the first set with the help of 10 blazing aces together with 33 service points and 11 returners.
Moving on to the second set, Isner continued to dominate as he blistered the Israeli winning the first game on his serve and breaking the world No. 94 in the next. Isner aced after ace increasing the 26-year-olds frustration forcing
him to play vigorously.
The local lad further on increased his lead to 3-0 before Sela took hold of his first win in set 2. The Americans lead went up to 4-1 and then to 5-2 with another win for the Israeli as he served next for game 8. Taking not more
than 10 minutes, Isner slammed a breakpoint winning the final set and the match leaving the Israeli tormented.
With the help of 7 aces in the set 2, and an 84 percent 1st serve win stats, Isner followed with winning 16 service points and 12 returners totalling 28 points.
In addition to 44 points in the first set, the gigantic American added another 28 totalling 72 points to walk on into the 3rd round of the Winston-Salem Open 2011.
Isner will now play the Finn, Jarkko Nieminen, to make his way into the quarter-final of the ATP Tour 250 event.
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