After skipping the first grand slam of the year due to family reasons and losing his second match in Acapulco John Isner spoke to the media ahead of his campaign at the Miami Open.
Isner is a former champion back in 2018 and says he is thrilled to be back despite the fact the setting is different with less fans and less prize money. Not to mention the series of top players who have decided to opt out of the first Master 1000 series event of the season.
“I have good memories at this tournament in 2018 at Crandon Park and very good memories in 2019 as well at the first year of the Hard Rock Stadium,” said Isner.
“I’ve always liked playing here. It’s good to be back after a two-year break which has been unfortunate for us players and it’s unfortunate that we don’t have the full Miami fans back in full force but next year we will have that”.
The former top 10 player went on to add, ” everything has been different in tennis and all sports really, at least we do have some fans in the stands this year to provide a neat little atmosphere and looking forward to be playing in front of them”.
Isner a few weeks back had gone on Twitter to voice his displeasure about the cut in prize money. In February he described the ATP as a ‘broken system’ and called for a ‘true audit’ of tournaments to be taken in order to establish the read financial impact of the pandemic. He also questioned the fairness in players having their prize money cut whilst others working at the ATP have not had a reduction in pay.
“It’s not what we are a custom to but we know that the tournaments don’t have the ticketing revenue that they are used to having so our prize money is going to take a hit because of that,” Isner commented on the topic.
“For the players is not so much about the prize money we don’t want to make it about that, it’s about tour structure that the players would like to have more knowledge of as to why decisions are made, again it’s not about the money, of course, we would love to play for a bigger purse but there’s a bit of uncertainty about how those numbers came into play, we’re all here to play and compete”.
The American also mentioned ” It’s about the system of the ATP and what goes into the decision of the prize money being so low not about the actual prize money itself, we understand with the loss of ticketing revenue, some players are questioning why it was down so much and the tour has implemented a strategy that is keeping the lower rounds pretty similar and the quarters, semis, and finals have been chopped quite a bit, the top players have the game have taken the big hit as far as the prize money is concerned, there’s always going to be things players are unhappy about, recently the tour has been more transparent with them, understand the process a bit more”
In the world of tennis right now it seems there has been more issues on the men’s side as the women’s side of things has been pretty normal with only Serena Williams pulling out due to a oral surgery and Isner touched on that as well.
” It’s an unfortunate situation the tour is in right now with only one stand-alone event in America due to the fact Indian Wells is postponed so most players in Europe it doesn’t fit their schedule too well, Roger, Rafa, and Thiem and you said 31 of the top 100 are out so it’s a big commitment to come over here for just one tournament and immediately go back to Europe, for the older guys, for the three greatest players we have ever seen it probably doesn’t make sense for them, the calendar has taken a big hit as well we know that so I think the main reason why is because it’s a stand-alone event not because of the prize money and more of a schedule conflict”.
Despite the fact he hasn’t played a lot of tennis so far this season the American did confirm to Ubitennis how he is feeling coming into the tournament.
” I actually feel alright, I was able to play Acapulco last week and play a couple of matches, one was good, one was not so good, to be able to get a couple matches before this tournament under my belt was pretty crucial because I haven’t played that much in the last year, it’s been a year since the tour shut down and it’s also good be back in Miami, it’s a place where I’ve had many good experiences so I would say this isn’t the best I’ve ever played but hopefully I can get this tournament started and get some momentum for myself and see what I can do, physically I’m healthy, mentally I feel pretty fresh, I just need to get off to a good start and see what I can do from there”.
He did also confirm his schedule going forward after Miami and does indeed plan to play the big tournaments in Europe during the clay season.
” I plan on playing the clay-court stuff, I missed the clay-court season in 2019 so I want to go over there and be a part of that, I entered Monte Carlo and Madrid and Rome, and of course I’ll play the French Open so if I go to Monte Carlo I’ll go back home go to Madrid and Rome and come back home in between so I don’t spend too much time over there and away from the family, I do plan on playing a full clay court season so I can my shot at the big events and see how I do”.
Isner was also asked if he thinks the tour should have done a better job at putting multiple events in the same location or close by due to the fact travelling during a pandemic can be quite difficult with all the restrictions.
” I do feel they could have made that easier on the players but again I don’t know the ins and outs of all that, I don’t know the financial repercussions of all that, keeping all the players in one area, seems players would have appreciated it as well to have a cluster of events in one specific area instead of traveling all over the world, one of the big issues is were always at risk of contracting the virus and being in a two-week lockdown in a city far away from home and that’s a risk that a lot of players have been willing to take and to do that in an environment where the money is less is very risky on our part and players have had to endure that before and it’s certainly unfortunate but again I can’t speak as to why it wasn’t done, I don’t know about those discussions behind closed doors”.
He would go on to say ” I don’t think our leadership is trying to sabotage our sport by any means, they are trying to do their best as they can for our sport and naturally some players have questions about that but the important things is we still believe in our product on the ATP tour and I know the WTA believes in their product as well, this will all eventually pass and things will become normal again and our sport will be in a lot better shape”.
Isner also gave his take on vaccine rollout and if he plans to get the shot and when he would do it and he doesn’t seem to have any immediate plans to get it done.
” No I haven’t gotten vaccinated yet and I haven’t thought about it so I think I should be last in line to get vaccinated so most important anyone at risk and older gets vaccinated before I do so I am not in any hurry to get that done that’s for sure”.
He concluded by talking about being at an event where the the big three are not playing and what it feels like for him.
” It probably hasn’t happened in the last 12 years, it’s got a different feel to it but if you look at the draw itself is so deep, there are so many good players, so many good unseeded players, so many good matches, it’s a good test to see how people will perceive this tournament because those three guys won’t be playing forever, I think it’s a unique opportunity for a lot of players to try and do well in this event without them in the field but also a unique opportunity to showcase all the players that aren’t Roger, Rafa, or Novak so were looking forward to a great event here and hopefully fans will tune in as much as they can from home and hopefully they enjoy it”.
The American enters the event as the number 18 seed and with that a first round bye and will face another American in the second round Mackenzie Mcdonald who needed three sets today to get past the Canadian Vasek Pospisil in the first round.
