John Isner Admits to Being Homesick

Written by: Staff on 1st June 2012

John Isner Admits to Being Homesick

epa03243628 John Isner of the USA returns to Paul-Henri Mathieu of France during their second round match for the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, France, 31 May 2012. EPA/IAN LANGSDON |

Homesick John Isner blames one month in Europe for the poor form which left him a French Open loser in the second round to Paul-Henri Mathieu. Now the North Carolina country boy has cut his losses and headed home, with his arrival in Britain for the grass season unknown.

US No. 1 Isner displays a curious attitude towards the travel his international sportsman’s job requires, sounding at times like a lost child and complaining about a “long” four-week stay in Europe which produced three wins from seven matches.

“I never felt comfortable. It’s been like that since I’ve been in Europe, really. I don’t know, slump, I guess you could say. I don’t know what it was. I just didn’t play the right way. I’m going to go home, I don’t even want to think about tennis right now,” said the North Carolina player.

Isner should have been in his comfort zone on clay after leading the US past France in April in Davis Cup play on the surface. But instead of playing the prestige Monte Carlo Masters which began a week later, he went straight back to the US, delaying his return to Europe until early May.

“I’ve just been getting too frustrated in general. You come over here and you want to do well, and you don’t do that well so you have long days. I just let it, this whole trip, get to me. It’s the absolute wrong thing to do.

“I never felt like I was in a good rhythm at any point. I guess I have been over here for four weeks.”

The lack of interest in the European clay spring by most American players drew a Tweet last month from now-retired Ivan Ljubicic, asking why Europeans play the summer US hardcourts but Americans don’t come to Europe for the clay until perhaps the French Open.

The message drew so much bile from the Yank players that it forced the Croatian to close his twitter account after the uproar.

Topics: 10sballs.com, American tennis news, John Isner, Monte Carlo Masters, Paul Henri Mathieu, Sports, Tennis News