The finalists in the Atlanta Tennis Championships will look very familiar.
Former Georgia standout John Isner will play defending champ Mardy Fish for the title for the second consecutive year. On Saturday, Isner defeated Gilles Muller 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-1 and Fish defeated Ryan Harrison 6-2, 6-4 at the Racquet Club of the South in Norcross.
The good friends will go at it for the fourth time in their careers at 3 p.m. Sunday.
“I’ll have to play as well as I can,” Fish said. “He showed last year that he’s a tough out here. No one’s beaten him here yet this year. He’ll be tough.
“I’ll come up with a game plan that will hopefully give him some trouble.”
Isner, who won two weeks ago, is attempting to win back-to-back titles for the first time in his career. He credits his recent success to an improved sense of confidence. When he feels good, he said he thinks better, reacts better and plays better.
Competing on some of his favorite hard courts, he said he has his confidence back after a rough start to the season in which he tumbled 27 spots to No. 47 in the ATP rankings.
“I’ve been waiting on this feeling for about four to five months,” he said. “Now that I have it, I don’t want to let it go.”
He has been on the verge for quite some time. After earning his first tournament win in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2010, Isner later that year lost to Sam Querrey in the finals in Memphis and Belgrade. He lost another title to Fish 6-4, 4-6, 6-7 (4) in last year’s ATC played at the Atlanta Athletic Club.
When close to winning in Tennessee and Serbia, as the opportunity began to slip he acknowledged he panicked. He said he stayed calm during recent victories in Newport, R.I., and hopes to keep the same approach Sunday.
“I tell myself if it goes to a third, I still like my chances,” he said.
That proved true in Saturday’s semifinal against Muller. Isner predicted it would be tough after needing three sets with two tiebreakers to dispatch Muller in the second round of last year’s ATC.
After splitting the first two sets Saturday, Isner broke Muller in the second game of the third set. After Isner hit a “junk volley,” Muller tried to hit a lob over the 6-foot-9 Isner that he said “didn’t go very well.”
Isner finished the point with an overhead slam that caused Muller to slam his racket on to the hard court in frustration. It looked like a melted mess afterward.
“I worked hard in the second set to win that set, and then at the beginning [of the third] I throw all my chances away,” Muller said. “It was hard to take.”
Fish had no such problems against the 19-year-old Harrison, who became the first American teenager to reach a semifinal in an ATP event since Querrey in 2007.
“It’s disappointing to go out, but hopefully it’s the first of many semifinals,” Harrison said. “I look forward to [Los Angeles] next week.”
Sunday’s stage is set and should be interesting. Isner is 1-2 against Fish, but defeated him 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (3) on the clay surface in Madrid earlier this year in their most-recent meeting. Isner is No. 35 in the world. A win would likely move him into the top 32.
Should he keep that place he will earn a seed in the U.S. Open, which he said is a goal.
Fish’s rise to the No. 9 player in the world started last summer, and winning in Atlanta was an important boost. He understands what Isner is feeling.
“Winning breeds winning,” he said. “It’s contagious. When you win, you want to win more. It’s only upside for him for this summer. I hope he does well ... apart from tomorrow.”
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