Not since Roscoe Tanner has the U.S. Open seen an American serving savant like John Isner. Sure, A-Rod can mash the ball and Pistol Pete could call forth the quan on big points as well as Boris Becker, but Tanner-the tanned and groovy Stanford stud who reach the world's #4 ranking in 1979-was the last to hit a serve of such prodigiously preposterous proportions that he hardly had to play tennis to win tennis matches.
In the Legg Mason Classic last week, Washington D.C.'s own Men's ATP Tour event, Isner, a recent University of Georgia graduate, raised his game to another level as he won five consecutive third set tiebreakers en route to a finals loss to Andy Roddick. Isner had received a wild-card to enter the draw after Chilean Fernando Gonzalez withdrew with a late injury and his results moved him to the rank of #193 in the world, exactly 646 spots better than the #839 ranking he started the summer with.
Isner, who is 6'9" tall, and originally from Greensborough, NC-which is really just over the hill from Tanner's place of birth, Chattanooga, TN-retains a genial Southern aspect. He looks like your little brother's huge goofy friend, if you're little brother happened to play tight end at a boarding school in the South, and he serves like a force of nature.
Isner's service preparation is worth notice. He doesn't rush to the line so much as he meanders towards it, studying the ball he has just received from the ball person, rolling it over the face of his racquet. Then he toes the baseline and bounces the ball a few times casually as he sets his feet. Just before he rocks back to begin his serve motion, he looks across the net once to confirm the spot in his opponent's service box that he has already picked out in his mind like a fastball pitcher. Then it starts. He shifts his weight to his back foot and rolls his front shoulder inward slightly as he turns his hips perpendicular to the net, bending his knees at a 70-degree angle. All of that happen slowly, and then he uncoils and the ball explodes off of his racquet.
Isner can hit it a flat, virtually spin-less serve down the middle at 145 mph. Or he can hit it wide to either side at 125 mph. In the ad court, he can hit an American twist serve, the inside out topspin kick serve that made Stefan Edberg one of the deadliest right-handers ever at break point. Isner's height also allows him to hit a wide slice serve to the forehand side in the deuce court-the serve that Baltimore public court legend David Barton used to call the can opener-with so much angle that even the likes of Gael Monfils, against whom Isner hit 23 aces in his semi-final victory in Washington, cannot reach it.
Indeed, Isner hit an incredible 144 aces in six matches at the Legg Mason Classic, a professional record for a one-week tournament, and for that achievement alone he can lay claim to Andy Roddick's title as tennis's reigning Sultan of Swat.
Can John Isner be more than just a big kid with a big serve? Just this spring he helped his University of Georgia Bulldogs win the NCAA team title, but college tennis is three steps down from the world's 50 best players.
Roscoe Tanner's serve was deadly because he used to hit it from such a low toss that it looked like he was hitting the ball directly out of his hand. He always hit flat and he could paint the lines like a deadeye target shooter. Isner is a different kind of server, more like Richard Krajcek, capable of creating massive angles and hitting a variety of spins at a variety of different speeds. The natural angle his height creates can only be compared to Ivo Karlovic on today's tour. Isner has shown an ability to use his serve to win big points, and reaching a Masters Series final in Washington D.C. showed he could win consecutive matches against tough opponents.
What makes Isner an incredible tennis prospect is that his backcourt play has so much room for improvement. He clearly has good hands and good instincts, but his strokes off the ground are wristy on both sides and he does not set his feet before he hits. The result is that Isner's ball does not have the weight to keep him in points with top caliber players.
But if Isner can learn to serve better than anyone else in the world over the course of a whole week, then he can probably learn to hit his other strokes well if he puts his mind to it. After all, Isner grew five inches as a high school junior and still moves like a teenager. Give him a few months of footwork drills, good hitting partners, a couple more big tournaments, and watch John Isner reach the Wimbledon final next year and attempt to do to Roger Federer what the 6'7" South African
Kevin Curren nearly did to Boris Becker in 1985-serve him off the court.
Monday afternoon at the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, 22 year-old American-born ATP Tour rookie John Isner defeated 26th-seeded Jarko Neimenen 6-7, 7-6, 7-6, 6-4, to advance to the second round of the 2007 US Open, taking one step closer to an improbable third-round clash with Roger Federer and announcing himself as the American tennis player most likely to win a Grand Slam Championship in the next year, Wimbledon 2008.