John Isner made short work of Hyeon Chung as he sailed into the semi-finals of the Miami Open 6-1 6-4 in just 68 minutes, on another breezy day here at Crandon Park.
The Korean Next Gen champion seemed out of sorts today, making a lot of uncharacteristic errors off both wings and serving double faults at inopportune moments. He came into the match having played clutch tennis to remain unbroken on serve in all 26 service games played so far this tournament, but today it was a totally different Chung that showed up as he surrendered his serve in the fourth game, courtesy of a double fault and three unforced errors on the forehand side. The elated American yelled “Yeah!” as he celebrated a Chung forehand going long on break point to move ahead 3-1.
Chung’s erratic game continued to assist his grateful opponent as Isner broke for a second time, and he wasted no time in serving out the set in 25 minutes with a 134mph bomb up the centre.
Isner was holding his own from the baseline, often out rallying the Korean who seemed unable to maintain any kind of consistency in the windy conditions.
Chung briefly looked like he might be in with a chance on the Isner serve in the fourth game of the second set when he engineered a break point opportunity, nailing a two handed backhand passing shot up the line. The American snuffed it out immediately with a 134mph ace up the centre to Chung’s dismay, and closed out the game with a huge unreturnable 139mph serve up the T.
Having successfully extricated himself from that sticky situation, Isner was buoyed to go after Chung immediately in the next game and he duly broke for 3-2 on his fourth break point opportunity of the game when the Korean’s aggressive forehand drive went marginally long.
From there, Isner was in cruise control, setting up two match points with a forehand volley winner, and clinching the match with a service winner out wide.
Isner served 13 aces, won an astounding 97% of points off his first serve and converted 3 out of 7 break point opportunities.
“I definitely served just as well as I did yesterday”, Isner said. “Serving like that, especially in conditions like this where the balls are getting up high against my opponent, I know I can be very tough to beat. So that was a very good serving performance from me.”
Chung was at a loss to explain why he wasn’t able to find his game on a breezy stadium court, and simply put it down to Isner playing at a level that he could’t match.“He played really good. I lose easy points for a few games and that’s why I lose easy”, he said.
Isner will play the winner of Juan Martin Del Potro vs Milos Raonic which is second on stadium court tonight.
