More on Isner's first-round loss ...
Thanks to the wonders of time zones, John Isner took the court in Australia this morning well before most of us were awake here in the U.S. Combine that with the fact that the King, Roger Federer, made his triumphant return after being sidelined with a stomach bug, and you've got a dearth of information on Isner's straight-set first-round loss to Fabrice Santoro.
That's where I come in. Thanks to my abilities to move a mouse and type, I've done what the kids like to call "some web surfing" and come up with some descriptions of the match.
Bonnie Ford of ESPN was thankfully checking out this match, in large part to do this piece about Santoro, who set a record with his 62nd appearance in a Grand Slam. Obviously, most of the piece is about the guy known as "The Magician," but it gives you a good idea why Isner struggled so badly against him. And then there's this quote from Thin Izzy about the match.
"He broke me six times," Isner said wonderingly. "I can't remember the last time that happened.
"The court's a bit slow and he was able to scrap a lot of returns back. Then sometimes he'd lunge and hit the ball 40 feet in the air and it would land inside the baseline. He's got that junky little slice. It's not the best matchup for me. … Guess I'll be the answer to a trivia question."
That's pretty similar to what was posted on the tennis blog, Tennis-X.com.
“He broke me six times so I guess he figured me out. That junky slice was tough for me to get down to."
And then there's this description of the Isner-Santoro match by Kamakshi Tandon, who is blogging the tournament for Tennis.com.
David forced Goliath to come up with his own pace from the baseline and found all kinds of awkward positions to place his passing shots when Isner managed to get to net. And while all pros miss easy shots from time to time, Isner tends to miss them wildly – and today, far too frequently. The fact that he was having a bad day on serve just about finished things off.
David, as you might have guessed, was Santoro, while Goliath was Isner. But that metaphor really only works in terms of their height difference (Santoro is 5-10, while Isner is 6-9 or 6-10 depending on what day it is). In terms of playing experience it was Isner that played the Lilliputian to Santoro's Gulliver. Add in the slow playing surface, which allowed Santoro to track down more balls and get them back with his wacky spins, and you really had to consider Isner an underdog in this match.
That said, I'm sure John would be the first to tell you he wasn't thrilled with how he played. For now, though, chalk it up to a tough lesson learned on what not to when playing a guy with a very unorthodox style.
It's not over in Oz for Iz. This evening Australia (which willl again be early morning here) John teams up with 6-10 Ivo Karlovic to play their first-round match in doubles. Normally doubles doesn't get any exposure until the later rounds, but I wouldn't be surprised if ESPN's cameras found their way to Court Seven to record a bit of this unusual duo.