Where Has John Isner (and American tennis) Gone?

Written by: Staff on 1st June 2013

French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros

Where Has John Isner (and American tennis) Gone?

epa03726855 John Isner of USA in action during his third round match against Tommy Haas of Germany at the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, France, 01 June 2013. EPA/IAN LANGSDON |

By Kristen Tracy

John Isner has become synonymous with marathon matches. Unfortunately for the American though, his success in those marathon five set matches is less than stellar. Sure he’s got the incredible 11 hour Wimbledon match three years ago. But his ability to close out matches that go longer than 3 sets has become a problem as of lately.

A year ago, John Isner was the guy who beat Novak Djokovic and made the top 10 for the first time. A year ago, he was the future of American tennis. But he’s not the player he was a year ago anymore. A string of injuries and a change of coach haven’t boded well for the 28-year-old, who’s serve is still more powerful than ever but isn’t playing with the same confidence he used to.

He’s played in a ton of five set matches during his career, and yet his win at the French Open yesterday over Ryan Harrison was only the first time he’s been able to come back after losing the first two sets. And although he showed a valiant effort against Tommy Haas today (he saved 12 match points), he was once again unable to win in the fifth. Some of it was exhaustion, but a lot of it was his inability to take advantage of the opportunities he had throughout the match.

The future of American tennis is looking bleak – it has been for quite a while now. There seemed to be a glimpse of hope last year but with Mardy Fish now extremely limited due to a heart condition, it’s up to the likes of guys like Isner, Querrey, and Harrison to carry the flag. The problem though, is that they are all so inconsistent in their winning that you can no longer count on an appearance by an American in the round of 16 or quarterfinals of any tournament (let alone a slam) like you once could.

It’s unfortunate that a country that once held such a dominance in the game of tennis is now barely visible. And it’s hard to say what the issue is. The United States is not lacking in producing players. What it lacks in is producing quality players – players who are incredibly well-rounded and able to actually compete against all kinds of opponents. It’s no longer acceptable to have only one strong element to your game. Sure, the Isner serve is indisputably one of the greatest in the game. But the rest of his game still contains too many holes, and that’s why he’s not able to produce the type of results he would like to. And all the other American men have merely “average” games. They can compete (and even win occasionally) but they don’t really have any weapons that set them apart from the rest of the tour.

The clay court season has never been one to strongly favor the American players. One can only hope that come the second half of the season, we begin to see some serious results from the American men. Otherwise, we could be looking at American men’s tennis heading toward extinction.

Follow Kristen on Twitter! @KristensKourt

Topics: French Open, John Isner, Novak Djokovic, Roland Garros, Ryan Harrison, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News, Tommy Haas