
By: MJ
The Labor Day Weekend found Roger Federer facing his first test of the tournament: the monster serving American John Isner. Ever since his days as a Bulldog, John has continued to improve his game and risen up the rankings as a result. One aspect of his game that has remained fairly constant is his serve. At over 2 meters tall, he has one of the biggest serves on the tour next to Karlovic. Due to this, he usually has an easy time holding serve, but has the tendency to play tiebreaks to decide matches. To be sure, he is not known for his return game. Tonight proved to be no exception even for the 5 time US Open champ as he struggled to break Isner’s man’s serve. He had plenty of chances throughout too. Nevertheless, Roger secured his place in the Quarterfinals with a 7-6, 7-6, 7-5 straight sets win.
The name of the game tonight was holding serve, then going for the break. That proved to be no easy task as both men held serve quite quickly, keeping the rallies short to begin the match. Isner had the right game plan by being aggressive on Federer’s 2nd serves, but Roger was quick to neutralize the point. The first of many break point chances came in the 6th game when Isner was down 15-40. He was able to bring it back to deuce, then on the next point he demolishes a overhead at Federer, who then gave the New York crowd a show by hitting a crazy wide angle passing shot. Not to be outdone however, Isner immediately showed off his skills as well, hitting a slice at the net that made the ball bounce back on his side of the court. For all the boring quick service games and short rallies, it is still always a treat when Roger is playing. Both players paid no attention to the crowd, and stayed focused on the ball. As Isner stuck with his game plan, so did Roger by drawing the big man to the net and forcing him to hit low volleys that the American failed to execute in frustration. Just like that, the first set went to tiebreak, which was expected. Here Roger stepped up his game, playing more aggressive by hitting bigger forehand and quickly broke Isner to go up 2-0. He continued the brilliant shotmaking we have all come to admire by hitting down the line clean winners. Before Isner could take a breathe, it was 0-6. He then dumped one last backhand into the net to give Roger the set. For the close set that just transpired, it was an astounding 7-0 tiebreak that nobody saw coming. Then again, with Roger, you never do see it coming!
The 2nd set began as a mirror image of the first. Big serving, short points. At the 3rd game, Federer made a quick racket change. After a well disguised drop shot for deuce, the crowd began to chant “Let’s go Roger”. He failed to convert the first break however. 7 chances later, even with an insane down the line return winner off John’ big serve out wide, the big man managed to save them all and hold. The next game it was Isner’s turn with some break points, but he failed to convert as well. At the end of the 5th game, a big celebration erupted up in the stands when a guy proposed to his girlfriend on the big screen. Afterwards Roger commented “I think it’s a good move….I am very happy for him. It’s very cute.”
Towards the end of the set Isner once again faced break points, and the crowd sang ‘Let’s go Roger” in encouragement. Alas, Isner remained unbreakable when Federer missed a backhand down the line. Unlike the first tiebreak however, Isner took the early break this time at 4-2. Once again, Federer stepped up his game, playing very smart tennis by chipping a slice return low and then set up the passing shot to get back on serve. Isner had no reply, and faced set point 5-6. Both men came to net on this crucial point, and this was Federer dumped a swinging volley into the net to keep the American alive. More big serves followed, but this time Roger had different plans. On the deuce side, he hit a huge return down the line for a clean winner. On the ad side, he hit yet another one down the line to clench the set. John may be the serving machine, but Roger was the shotmaker.
As if to change things up this time, John took a long bathroom break before coming back on court for the 3rd set. If his plan was to faze Roger, it made little difference. Much like the previous 2 sets, both men continued to hold serve quickly. It wasn’t until the 8th game before Isner found himself down 0-40 before his home crowd. Surely Roger would break this time. Up to now, neither player has converted a single break point. Instead, this trend would continue as Isner saved all of them, with Federer dumping a somewhat easy slice into the net. It was beginning to look like another tiebreaker as both men remained steady to hold at 6-5. With the ball back on Isner’s Prince, he lost two fast points. Then Roger did it again: down the line winner for love 40, 3 match points. Will he finally break this time? John saved one, then floated a volley long. It took over 2 1/2 hours, but Federer did what his opponent failed to do: break serve.