John Isner struggles past Jack Sock to reach the quarter-final – Clay Court Championship 2013
American tennis ace, John Isner, had to dig deep to take down his fellow compatriot, Jack Sock, in the second round of US Men’s Clay Court Championship on Thursday. The fifth seeded home favourite battled extremely hard for two
hours and 29 minutes before settling the conflict in three sets. He registered the final score line of 7-5, 6-7(3), 7-6(3) and entered the quarter-final round of the ATP World Tour 250 event in Texas, USA.
It was an evenly matched contest, with both American players putting up a spectacle for their home crowd. Sock stretched Isner to his limits but crumbled in the intense pressure moments of the match to finish on the losing side.
He lost the opening set after a tough battle but came back into the contest by winning the second set tie-break. The decisive set of the match was also dragged into a tie-break but it was Isner this time to take the better of his compatriot and finished off
the contest in a convincing manner.
“I’m sort of a streaky player. I play very well for a month-and-a-half stretch, and there will be some stretches where I don’t play so well and I get down in my confidence a little,” said Isner. “Matches like my first one and this
one today are ones that go a long way for me.”
As he is known for exceptional serve game, Isner fired 15 thudding aces to his opponent’s court and committed merely one double fault in the entire matchup. His first serve precision reached 61 per cent accuracy and he secured
60 out of 73 points on it en route to victory. Only one break point was witnessed in the entire match and it came from Isner. Sock squandered four priceless break opportunities in the match and eventually had to fall out of the tournament in a dismal manner.
Isner will face Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania in the quarter-final round of the tournament on Friday. Berankis made a huge upset by defeating the second seeded German, Tommy Haas, 6-3, 6-3, to book a date with Isner in the round
of eight.
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