It was surprising.
It rained in the desert.
But, it was hardly surprising that in the semis of the BNP Paribas Open, the gentle giant – 6’ 9” 245 pound John Isner – rained down a torrent of serves, forehands and overheads to beat the semi-invincible Novak Djokovic 7-6, 3-6, 7-6 to crack the Top 10 and become the first American to beat the No. 1 player in the world since James Blake shocked Roger Federer at the ’08 Olympics. Now, against Roger Federer in the Sunday final, he’ll try to become the first American man to win in Indian Wells since Andre Agassi in 2001.
With endless legs and gigantic strides he seems slow on court and his rise in the rankings has hardly been mercurial.
But coming off a stunning Davis Cup upset of Federer on clay in Switzerland, the University of Georgia product was now on a role – starting fast, finishing strong, taking sensible chances, guessing right on Djokovic’s serve and offering his own 143 mph serves. The 26-year old was feeling it.
“So,” we wondered, “What’s the importance of confidence?”
“It’s huge. It’s the most important thing,” he replied. “You look at Djokovic, when he finally did got to No. 1 he just started [zoning], what he did last year was incredible. It was mostly because of confidence … So these guys at the top are always confident. I’m just going to keep on riding this wave I’m on and see how far it can take me.”
“Can you win a Slam,” we asked.
“I believe I can,” he said. “You know, slams are tough … the most physical. You’re playing three out of five. If I were to run up against Djokovic in a slam, playing three out of five today I would have to finish him off with one more set. So I know it’s so tough.”
No kidding.
The “triopoly” of Djokovic, Federer and Nadal have won an astounding 27 of the last 28 Slams. What separates these three from the rest of the field?
Isner said, “It’s the consistency. It’s going deep in tournaments such as this. It’s nice to win smaller events, but the ones that really matter are these Masters Series and the four Grand Slams. It’s pretty much a given that the top four are going to reach the second week.”
Isner is one of the very few to have played Djokovic, Nadal and Federer in the past year, so we asked John to rank them.
“That’s a tough question,” he said. “Right now? It’s Novak just because he’s No. 1 and he’s won four out of the last five slams. The greatest of all time, in my opinion, it’s Roger. But then, they’re all three just incredible players. Rafa has been No. 1 forever. I don’t know, these three have taken our sport to a whole new level.”
Then again, there’s a huge man from North Carolina who moves surprisingly well; who has a “get out of jail” first and second serve, is increasingly confident and has a penchant for dramatic play on big stages (just ask Nicolas Mahut about Wimbledon or Andy Roddick about the U.S. Open or Nadal about the French Open or Irishman Louk Sorensen about the Aussie Open.) And now Mr. John Isner is poised to go beyond the feats of other great big men (like 6’ 6” Juan Martin del Potro, who won the U.S. Open, and 6’ 6” Todd Martin, who reached two Slam finals) and take this game to whole new heights.
