John Isner kept his perfect record alive against Felix Auger-Aliassime after beating the Canadian 7-6(5), 7-6(5), in the third round of the Miami Open.
The 18th seed, who is playing in only his third tournament of the season, blasted 16 aces and hit 26 winners without facing a break point throughout the match. Registering his 26th win in Miami which is the most wins in his careers at a Masters 1000 tournament.
“I knew it was going to be tough, Felix is such an incredible player and these conditions are good for me so I knew at the worse I was going to be able to make it a close match, make it come down to a few points here or there and that was the case today, certainly there are some things I wish I could have done better but all in all I’m happy to win the match and happy to move on.” The 2018 champion said afterwards.
Both players did a good job serving well and with the 6ft 10 American there is always a good chance there will be a tiebreak or two involved. In the first set neither played blinked and it would be decided by a breaker. In that breaker Isner got the early advantage and took a 2-0 lead when on the second point the number 11 seed shank a overhead. The Greensboro native went on to win the tiebreak 7-5 and take a one set lead looking to book his spot in the round of 16.
The second set was identical to the first with neither player giving a wiff of an opportunity. Once again another tiebreaker beckoned giving the American a chance to close the match. It seemed nerves were playing a factor and Auger-Aliassime would crack first serving a double fault on the very first point. At 3-2 with Isner resident serving, the world number 18 would come with a big return winner and was back in the game at 3-3. It would stay on serve until 6-5 when the American had a match point and played the point of the match and would seal the victory after the Canadian sent a forehand long.
35-year-old Isner will next face Roberto Bautista Agut who beat Jan-Lennard Struff 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 and spoke about the match-up in his post game press conference.
” It’s going to be very tough, everyone knows how solid he is as a player, he does so many things so well,” he said.
“Last time we played was two years ago at this event so I know it’s going to be a close match, going to be a tough match. He’s just rock-solid, doesn’t give you anything and I’ll be looking forward to the challenge.’
“It’s going to be a fun match, he’s a great guy, a great player, a great friend of mine and it will be a lot of fun playing against him, one thing for sure I am going to have to play well if I want to have a chance at beating him, he’s too solid if I don’t.”
One particular area of his game which Isner was particularly happy about was his serve. Against Auger-Aliassime, he won 82% of his first service points and 60% of his second.
“That’s probably the best I’ve served all year and I haven’t played many matches,” he said. “Even for a guy like myself I do need to play matches to get my serve feeling good. In my first-round match I served very well in the second and third sets and today I served well throughout the whole match so that’s a good sign going forward especially in conditions like this that I found my service game again.
“We’ll see if it can continue to pay off for me but very happy with how I served today and backed up my serve, it allowed me to win the match”.
Isner leads Bautista Agut 3-1 in their head-to-head.
