John Isner is headed to the finals of the BB&T Atlanta Open for the seventh time.
Cruising past Gilles Muller in straight sets (6-4, 6-2), the second-seeded Isner has only failed to reach the finals once in eight tries.
Muller, the 22nd-ranked player in the world, was 2-3 against Isner in his career. The two had a fairly even past against each other, but Saturday proved to be different, with Isner currently playing one of the better stretches of tennis in his life.
“It was very nice,” said Isner, who is currently ranked 20th in the world. “I have played opponents much lower ranked than me, but I also knew I was playing extremely well. It wasn’t in my opinion a case of playing someone ranked low, it was more of me playing well. I kept that up today against someone, I think, just one spot or so behind me. It was a very good match, absolutely nothing to complain about today. On and off the court in pretty quick fashion and certainly will be ready to go tomorrow.”
The key has been Isner’s style of putting opponents away. Typically someone who goes deep into matches because both players hold serve, the University of Georgia product has kept up his dominant serves, but he’s also been able to break serves much more efficiently than usual.
He did so three times against Muller, who is known as a great server himself. Perhaps the most impressive one came with the second set tied 1-apiece. Trailing 40-love, Isner fought all the way back with multiple return wins to break Muller and take complete control of the match.
“He was up 40-love, and I hit a return winner,” Isner said. “And I forget how it went down. He might have had a momentary lapse in concentration. And next thing you know I got it back to deuce and still felt confident at that point, knew I was returning well enough and doing right things and eventually was able to break though.”
From there, Isner continued to hold serve and broke Muller once more to take a comfortable and stress-free victory. He’s now won 69 consecutive service games, in which he’s needed to save break point only five times. Four of those came in the match Saturday, with the most difficult one in the second set, leading 5-2. Isner fell behind love-40, but he delivered numerous big serves, including a series of aces to save three break points and take the match.
Isner has won all three of his matches in straight sets, which has kept him rested after winning last week in Rhode Island.
“I do feel pretty fresh, especially coming off a tournament last week,” Isner said. “I’ve been playing the right way and I haven’t played a 3-set match yet, I don’t think I’ve been out there longer than an hour-and-a-half. That helps a lot. I feel great physically, maybe the best I’ve felt in quite some time. And more importantly than that, I’m pretty confident as well.”
In the final Sunday at Atlantic Station, Isner will seek his 12th career ATP World Tour win. He’ll face either fourth-seeded Ryan Harrison or fifth-seeded Kyle Edmund. Harrison, an American, would create an energetic atmosphere in Atlanta.
“Yeah, certainly, I’m going to be pulling for Ryan,” Isner said. “I’m always pulling for Americans. To play an American in an ATP Final would be very cool. But, with that being said, he definitely has his hands full today. It should be a very good match, I think they both played exceptionally well yesterday.”
