John Isner is in the midst of the worst slump of his career.
The 32-year-old American who turned pro in 2007 is a dreadful 2-6 on the year with several excruciatingly painful losses.
Isner’s season of agony began with a 67 75 26 loss to Hyeon Chung in Auckland. Followed by a four set loss to Matt Ebden in Melbourne.
Isner finally got his first win of the year in Davis Cup against Serbia, a five setter against Dusan Lajovic, 7-6 in the fifth.
That first win did not get Isner back on track as he lost his first match again at New York Open to Radu Albot 67 63 36.
In Delray Beach, Isner requested a wildcard and avenged Albot in three sets but then lost his next match to Peter Gojowczyk 67 76 67.
Desperately starving for a win, Isner drew struggling Ryan Harrison, fresh off successive first round losses to Reilly Opelka and Ivo Karlovic, for his opener in Acapulco and promptly lost again 36 67.
The suffering would continue in Indian Wells where Isner drew Gael Monfils for his first match. With the American stadium supporting the Frenchman, an insulting repeat of what happened at the US Open a few years ago, Isner succumbed once again, losing in three sets to Monfils yesterday afternoon.
Now a journeymanesque 2-6 on the year, Isner can’t even get a break in his home country, where his fellow American fans snubbed him when he needed it most and cheered on the flashy foreigner.
With 12 ATP titles and 361 career match victories, Isner, ranked 18 in the world, has suddenly lost his winning touch and his confidence.
At 32, it appears Isner has lost that fraction of agility, speed, stamina, movement, and accuracy on the big points. Since 2010 Isner has won at least 33 matches per year (45 in both 2012 and 2015) but this year he’s currently on a one match win a month tailspin. For comparison, two years ago Rajeev Ram won 12 ATP singles matches and finished 128 in the world.
Isner could just be having the misfortune of being stuck in an unlucky patch where nothing is going right. These kinds of periods happen to all veteran ATP players, even the likes of Novak Djokovic and Michael Chang and Vince Spadea.
All it takes is two or three quality wins in a row at the same event as the remedy to right the sinking ship of Captain John Isner.
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« Previous 1 2Scoop Malinowski · March 14, 2018 at 3:04 pm
Lopez has done something that is incomparable in the history of the game. He’s played 64 consecutive majors and he’s most likely going to play 67 by the end of the summer. Agassi, Connors, Courier, Hewitt, Sampras, Laver, Djokovic, Lendl could not do what Lopez did. Like Bernard Tomic once said, “A lot of great players don’t win majors.” Lopez is a great player in his own way.
Bryan · March 14, 2018 at 3:36 pm
“American stadium supporting the Frenchman, an insulting repeat of what happened at the US Open a few years ago.”
I thought of the same thing. Monfils is globally popular but this wouldn’t happen in virtually all other countries.
Duke Carnoustie · March 14, 2018 at 3:41 pm
To be fair to the crowd, nobody pays to watch John Isner play. There’s a reason Fed invited Jack Sock for the Match for Africa and not Isner. Nobody in America cares about Isner. Heck, a scrub like D-Young gets more notoriety.
That also has to emotionally cut deep for the big man that he isn’t respected by the greats of the game while a guy who clowns around half the time like Sock is.
Scoop Malinowski · March 14, 2018 at 3:41 pm
Bryan it’s astonishing and humiliating that American tennis fans so blatantly don’t respect or appreciate Isner and all that he has achieved and that he has carried American tennis for about a half a decade. It’s a slap in the face. I’m sure Isner is quite bitter and also hurt by it. It also proves quite clearly that there is no racism by American tennis fans at all. Zero.