He becomes the first American to win the Miami Open since 2010 when Andy Roddick took the title, and will reclaim a career high ranking of 9 this week. It sees the final edition of the Miami Open at Key Biscayne close with a clean sweep of American champions, with Sloane Stevens winning the ladies final and the Bryan brothers winning the men’s doubles yesterday.
The 14th seeded American threatened to go into an early lead when he held three break points in the opening Zverev service game, but the German 4th seed held on and in the fifth game engineered a break point himself with a glorious forehand cross court pass. Isner snuffed it out with a 133mph bomb up the centre and held from there for 3-2.
The American was holding his own from the back of the court and had Zverev in trouble again in the sixth game when he brought up two break points with a backhand pass up the line. The German escaped once again, closing out the game with an ace, and from there games went with serve comfortably to set up the tiebreak.
Zverev took control of the breaker from 3-4 down with a run of 4 points after the American wilted under pressure with a mistimed forehand going long and a double fault, closing out the 58 minute set when Isner sent his backhand wide.
The second set looked for all the world as if it was also going to be concluded by a tiebreak with each man holding comfortably until suddenly, Zverev, serving at 4-4, found himself in trouble courtesy of a double fault and a mishit forehand off a low mid-court ball which found the backstop. The American wasted no time in punishing the German by converting his break point opportunity with a thunderous inside out forehand which clipped the sideline for a clean winner, and closed out the set on serve 6-4 to level the match to the delight of the majority in the packed stadium court.
Isner was rock solid on serve in the final set, holding serve to love twice in succession and forcing Zverev to save a total of 5 break points, and as the score moved to 4-4 Zverev found himself in trouble once again, but this time he could not escape. His mistimed backhand which flew long gave Isner 15-40, and when he netted an easy short forehand in the next point to drop his serve, the furious German smashed his racket in disgust twice over on the court to loud boos and a code violation warning from the umpire. Isner served out the match in the next game to love to clinch the title, nailing a 131mph ace up the centre to win the biggest title of his career.
“It’s incredible”, Isner said. “To come back from a pretty disappointing first set that I had some chances in; some break points and serving at 4-3 in the tiebreaker and lost four straight points. At that point I was actually exhausted, but somewhere in the second set I found a second wind and I felt so much better in the second set and the third set than I did in the first set. To win like that, with a crowd like that, you can’t replicate moments like that. It was absolutely amazing.”
“It’s amazing. This tournament has so much history, all the best players have played here over the years. For Sasha and I to share the court in the last men’s singles match ever here at this tournament, is amazing. I never thought I would be in this moment considering how I was playing coming into this event, so for me to come out the winner is pretty unique.”
“Sloane showed yesterday that she steps up on the big stage with the US Open and here and I think she had gone through a losing streak and she was telling everyone to relax, and she was absolutely right about that. And then Bob and Mike winning yesterday, and I share a coach with them, David McPherson, and that’s a clean sweep right there.”
“To leave this tournament ranked top 10 in the world, I got there in 2012 and again in 2014, and I have matched my highest ranking in 2018. I’ve done it three times and it’s up to me now to keep pushing forward. This is a big hurdle for me, mentally more than anything to get over the hump in a tournament like this. I will play many tournaments like this, and maybe I can give myself another opportunity.”
“It’s very special”, Isner said regarding winning the Miami Open on Easter Sunday. “It’s incredible. I wrote on the camera ‘He is risen’. It’s very special. I don’t talk about it too much, but it’s an important piece of my life, even more so now that I’m married. It’s something that my wife and I always talk about and we always go to church. I missed the service this morning, of course, but it’s very, very special. It’s an incredible day.”
Zverev was left to contemplate his below par performance from the baseline that ultimately cost him the match.
“I think I missed more shots today than I did the whole tournament”, Zverev said. “I played bad from the baseline. But, you know, it’s not easy against John, because you always feel the pressure that if you get broken, you’re not going to win the set. That’s maybe a factor, but, yeah, I had a lot of mistakes today that I didn’t do the whole week.”
“But he played great”, he continued. “He played very well from the baseline and he returned very well. Obviously, his serve. But as I said, I did too many unforced errors and I kind of lost the match myself. I had a pretty good tactic and a game plan, which, you know, if you just miss, it doesn’t matter. I mean, it was not about that. It was more about me not finding a rhythm. That was about it.”