John Isner is into the third round of the French Open after beating the Serbian Filip Krajinovic 7-6, 6-1, 7-6 in two hours and 13 minutes.
The 31st seed hit a total of 60 winners, 23 aces and won 91% of his first service points in his latest encounter at Roland Garros. It is the seventh time in his career he has reached the last 32 of the tournament.
“At this stage of my career, I’m not trying to prove anything to anyone,” Isner said afterwards. “I just want to go out and play free and try to play loose and be happy with the result either way. That’s what I have done very, very well this year”.
The match started with both players doing a solid job holding serve and it was the 6ft10 American who earned the first three chances to break but the world number 41 did a better job saving all three and holding serve.
In typical Isner fashion the first set was decided by a tiebreaker and in the breaker it was actually the Belgrade resident who would jump out to a 3-0 lead but the world number 34 would keep it tight.Eventually storming back to tie the breaker at five-all. Then at 6-6 Isner was able to flip the script and broke the Serb to win the first set with a stunning passing shot.
Isner kept the momentum going into the second and had a look at three breakpoints in the opening game. Breaking the world number 41 to love, he continued to roll and went up a double break before the Serb was able to hold serve at 4-1. Then Krajinovic had three chances to get a break back but Isner did a good job saving all three and holding serve. Breaking in the following game at the third time of asking to seal the second set.
The third set was super tight with neither player budging on serve. At 5-4 with the world number 41 serving to stay in the match he would face and save two match points and once again they would head into another breaker.
It was back and forth in the second breaker and 4-4 the American finally got the breakthrough needed to take the match and book a date with Stefanos Tsitsipas who beat the Spaniard Pedro Martinez in straight sets 6-3, 6-4, 6-3.
