John Isner, ace machine watch 2013
 

Isner seemed to pick up a slight niggle at the Hopman Cup but thankfully he seems to be on course for the Australian Open!

This is a player that at 6ft 9 has a sporting idol who was in the NBA and not tennis but has ferocious power off the serve and forehand!

The proof is in the pudding that on his day he is the most devastating player in the world! Last year he took the racket out of Federer's hand to beat him in Switzerland in the Davis Cup before beating Djokovic in Indian Wells!

Isner also has the record for the most aces in a match (113). The ferocious power plus enormous serve from such a height mean that if John gets it all together he is going to be unstoppable come the Australian Open which gets underway on January 14th in Melbourne.

That might be true but it's too bad he can't hit a return.

Or he gets forced to play a 5-setter in an early round and it's bye bye John.

No one denies he has a great serve but his movement and ,as Tafmatch suggests, his ROS is pretty below average. And saying he's the most devastating player in the world or unstoppable is going way over the top

Dunno, a knee injury on the eve of the AO cant be a good thing.

And its tendonitis at that

When you serve as fast and with as much bounce as Isner extracts then returns are not really that important!

Take his match against Federer for instance! In the last 3 sets Fed one of the great returners was finding it near impossible to break Isners serve as a result Federer was under pressure every time he served!!

By the end of the match the pressure told and the confidence this gave Isner transferred to his return game as he won the 4th set 6-2 and was climbing into Federer's serve and breaking him and will with some of the biggest return winners you will see!

If he was a better returner he'd be a much more difficult opponent to handle, though.

He is becoming what Roddick was towards the latter part of his career... someone who can be bested off the ground and any guy with a decent serveand groundies, if he keeps his head together in return games to make a return or two, can beat him.

Except they are. That's how come the big fella is a combined 1-4 versus Noel and Murray.

I'd love to see Isner do well at the AO - but those 2 guys are his worst nightmare.

I love Isner, but he's got no chance. If you think that having a big serve means the rest of your game doesn't matter, explain to me why he hasn't won a grand slam yet? How about Karlovic? He's a good server, too. Why hasn't he won one yet?

Only because it took him 91 service games to overcome a French qualifier ranked outside the top 100.

If you really think he'll win, place a bet and post a pic of the slip for us. Then we'll know you're serious. ;)


Regards,
MDL

Is this 2009?

Damn you Y2K, messing wid owr brainz again.

Im in the same boat. Isner is one of my favorite players and I think he will have a good showing in the AO, but until he gets better in the return game i dont see him winning any majors. Still love him though

Do you seriously like this style of tennis?

All serve, squeaking by on winning one point off his opponent's return (in a breaker).

Isner vs Karlovic - do people find that better than Nadal vs Djokovic?

Big Man Tennis or pushing - pick your poison.

Murray and Djokovic are two excellent returners! But the fact is Isner won his last match against either of those two last year at Indian Wells! And it is a long time since he faced Murray!

Of course having variation is nice etc but Isner can literally hold at will against the majority of the tour then go for bust in the breakers!

The match v Novak last year is a classic example winning two tiebreakers after losing the middle set pretty convincingly!

Except for when he can't hold at will at all. See his 2012 US Open and French Open losses. No tiebreaks in either of those five-set matches. Or the Australian where the only two sets he won in the third round were tiebreaks, and he got crushed in the others. His first round Wimbledon loss... where his big serve should serve him best!

I like Isner, but he's got a lot to improve.

Lol...so we're back with the " How on earth can anyone ever beat John Isner with a serve like that?" threads are we? :)

I thought Mighty Milos had long since taken over Big John's mantle as the player with the Big Serve that everyone will run a mile from?

I wonder if it is because Mighty Milos lost in the opening round of Brisbane that his future 'Goatness' has been put on hold and Big John has been brought out of the closet and dusted down for another run as 'The Next Big Thing In Tennis' ? I have a feeling we've all been here before!

Déja Vu is not what it used to be!

;-)

even if he is hot, a bad serving day will do him in. 7 wins and 3/5 is very difficult to be serving well that entire time. I think it's more likely he grabs a Masters that plays fast this year.

He almost had IW last year... maybe this year or Cincy/Toronto

wrong era for him. his serve and FH are very powerful but his movement, BH and ROS is lacking.

I think on the fast 90s grass he could have won wimbledon. I think isner is one of the best servers ever, probably better than pete (2nd highest hold percentage ever despite the conditions of the courts).

of course he would still not be the favorite over pete or becker since those were much better players but I don't think his overall package is worse than krajicek or goran.

If he gets past the 4th round I'll be surprised, quarter-finals if he played his best tennis ever.