This Isner Is One Cool Customer

I’m watching the Isner-Chiudinelli second-round match in Paris today and Isner comes back from losing the first set to win the next two in tie-breakers, and then breaks the Swiss to go up 5-3 in the fourth set. Chiudinelli holds at love, hitting a serve at 40-love that Isner doesn’t even so much as wave at. And this tension-filled, uber-close match is on Isner’s racket at 5-4. As the 6-foot-9 North Carolinian sits down at the changeover, I think I’ll see nerves start playing out on Isner’s young, handsome face.

But instead he sits in his chair with his right ankle crossed over his left knee, looking like he might start pontificating on the the merits of having a size 16 shoe or whatever his mammoth Keds are. He takes off his cap which is on his head backwards, and his brown hair is still perfectly in place. He gets up from the chair and walks up to the baseline and serves four bombs, I mean if these aren’t Ivo Karlovic missiles, then at least they’re bigger than Andy Roddick’s collective deliveries. Chiudinelli looks like he’s glad to get off the court so he won’t have to return any more of Isner’s titanic blasts.

Isn't John Isner Just A Really Nice Guy?