Amid the reporters and cameras awaiting John Isner following his 6-3, 6-2 win over Alex de Minaur at the BB&T Atlanta Open, a pint-sized fan in a custom airbrushed “John Isner #1 Fan” T-shirt patiently awaited his favorite player’s arrival.
Eleven-year-old Justin Roberts has been following Isner for the past eight years after watching the very first BB&T Atlanta Open back in 2010. The two met after Isner’s mother gave Roberts a towel to put over his legs, and since that day, Justin and his mom, Stefanie, have been “all over” to watch Isner.
“We’ve been to China. We’ve been to the U.S. Open. We’ve been to Wimbledon. The Miami Open when he won, we were there,” she said.
While Justin admires Isner’s serve and “aggressive play,” he doesn’t try to mimic that style of play. Isner has a few feet on the sixth grader, so Roberts has his own methods for winning matches.
“I hit harder with more topspin,” he said. “I got for a lot of balls. I don’t really come to the net as much.”
During the match against de Minaur, Roberts and a packed crowd were treated to an Isner victory and his famous serve. The match was five hours shorter than Isner’s marathon in the Wimbledon semifinal, and with 15 aces, many points came in a matter of seconds.
“It was a pretty comprehensive win, so I’m happy about that,” Isner said after the match. “You never really know how you’re going to come out. This is my first match on hard court since Miami. … I’m very happy, extremely happy.”
Since the win in Miami and the endurance-test at Wimbledon, things have been a bit different for the former Georgia Bulldog. Hundreds of fans crowded the PGA Tour Superstore to meet the hometown favorite, and the crowd at Stadium Court was clearly in his favor.
Isner made it clear that he was grateful and humbled by all the new supporters, but one fan still stands out among the rest.
“Justin has been my fan forever,” he said. “He’s the man. He’s been at it every single year here. He’s maturing a lot. I always see him in the crowd, and I can always hear him in the crowd as well.”
With the win over de Minaur, Isner advances to the quarterfinals to face Mischa Zverev on Friday. The two have a history dating to 2009. Zverev holds three wins to Isner’s two, with the most recent coming at the 2017 U.S. Open, but home-court advantage is on Isner’s side this time.
“I’ve never played (Zverev) in Atlanta, so that might help,” Isner said. “He’s certainly going to have a lot of belief against me on Friday. He cleaned my clock at the U.S. Open last year. He beat me in five sets at the Australian Open, and he beat me somewhere else also. He’s a good player, a very good player.”
The Friday face-off will be Isner’s biggest challenge in Atlanta thus far, but if he can pull out a win in front of his hometown crowd, he might gain a couple of more fans like Justin.
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