This one stings for Isner
I know, I know, every loss hurts, but John Isner's three-set defeat at the hands of Igor Andreev in Cincy yesterday had to linger a bit longer.
Consider that in the second set tie-breaker Isner held two match points, at 6-5 and 8-7. (We actually got bad info in the paper today, which said Isner fought off two match points. Actually it was Andreev that did so.)
Consider that it would have been a nice feather in the cap to knock off a player of Andreev's caliber. The 25-year old Russian is playing arguably the best tennis of his career, reaching two ATP titles in July to push his ranking up to a career-best No. 24 in the world.
Consider that Andreev had already knocked off No. 15 seed Radek Stepanek and that the third-round opponent may have been another unseed player. Carlos Moya is currently up one set on No. 4 seed Nikolay Davydenko.
Consider that, had Isner won, he would have added at least another 40 precious ranking points to his total. As is, he gained 35 at Cincy. A nice total, but coming on the one-year anniversary of the 140 points he earned in D.C. in 2007, not enough to keep Isner's ranking from plummeting.
Once again, here's how that math works. Players are ranked based on the amount of points they've accumulated in the last 12 months. It's a moving snapshot in that, the points you won, say, the week of July 25, 2007 disappear from your ranking total the instant that same date rolls around in 2008.
Thus, despite winning a round in Cincy and very nearly winning another. Isner's point total sinks from 451 to 346. It also didn't help that the previous week he did not play, while 55 points he earned in Lexington in 2007 also disappeared from his total. So in the past two weeks, Isner has dropped 195 points from his ranking total, while only adding 35. Two weeks ago he was ranked No. 90 in the world. After this week, he'll probably be somewhere around No. 135.
Ouch. So you can see why that loss to Andreev was doubly hard to swallow.
Here, though, are a few bright spots. Because the Olympics have moved the calendar around, Isner still has three ATP tournaments left to play before the U.S. Open. And he already has a spot in the main draw of each (LA, D.C. and New Haven) despite his drop in the rankings (Tournaments get commitments from players several weeks in advance. Back then, Isner was still in the top 100.) The competition will be thinned out considerably thanks to the Olympics, but the points earned for wins in those tournaments will count the same. And they're all on the fast, hard surface that Isner loves the best.
So it's a great opportunity for Isner to boost his ranking back up heading into the U.S. Open. Last year during August, Isner totaled 85 ranking points (75 of which came from reaching the third round of the Open). This year he'll have four good chances to better that total and, as a result, jump back in the top 100.
That fourth chance would be the U.S. Open. I'm assuming Isner will be in the main draw, because I can't imagine he wouldn't merit at least a wildcard. He may need it though, because I'm not sure his ranking will be high enough when the Open gives out its automatic berths in the main draw.
One other positive note, the Isner/Mardy Fish partnership continues to prosper in doubles. The duo won their first round on Tuesday and picked up a gaudy 75 points. They won the first set, 7-6, over the No. 5 seeds Jonas Bjorkman and Kevin Ullyett. If Isner and Fish pull of that upset, they'll be in the quarterfinals and have 50 more ranking points. Either way, Isner's pretty much assured he'll leave this tournament ranked in the top 100 in doubles.
But we already know how much Isner values singles over doubles right now. No offense to Fish, but I'm pretty sure Isner would trade a doubles title in Cincy for a win over Andreev.
We'll be back to update the result of the Isner/Fish match later.
Due to recent automated spamming attacks on our blogs, we are temporarily requiring commenters to authenticate themselves via TypeKey® before posting comments to any News & Record blog in order to prevent denials of service. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.