ROME TENNIS UPDATE FROM RICKY DIMON, WE LOOK AT RAFAEL NADAL / JOHN ISNER MATCH & MORE

Written by: Staff on 14th May 2015

ROME TENNIS UPDATE FROM RICKY DIMON, WE LOOK AT RAFAEL NADAL / JOHN ISNER MATCH & MORE

epa04747947 Rafael Nadal of Spain returns the ball to John Isner of USA during his third round match against Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland of the Italian Open tennis tournament at the Foro Italico in Rome, Italy, 14 May 2015. EPA/MAURIZIO BRAMBATTI |

Nadal once again solves the Isner puzzle

By Ricky Dimon

With only one title in nine tournaments and four losses on clay this season, Rafael Nadal may be suffering a crisis in confidence. If only he played John Isner every time he took the court, perhaps that would not be an issue.

Arguably Nadal’s two best matches of this current clay-court swing have come at Isner’s expense. The Spaniard toppled Isner 7-6(6), 4-6, 6-3 in a high-quality encounter in the Monte-Carlo third round and Nadal prevailed again 6-4, 6-4 during third-round action at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Thursday.

US tennis player John Isner in action against French Adrian Mannarino during their Madrid Open tennis tournament first round match played at Caja Magica sports pavilion in Madrid, Spain, 04 May 2015. EPA/CHEMA MOYA

Nobody has been able to handle an-form Isner quite like Nadal of late. Since getting broken by Nadal in the fourth game of their third set in Monte-Carlo, the 6’10” American held an incredible 84 consecutive service games. Only when Isner ran into…yep, Nadal…did the streak come to an end. Nadal solved the Isner serve once in the first set on Thursday and also once in the second–enough to advance after one hour and 19 minutes of play.

In eight matches during this European clay season against opponents not named Nadal, Isner has dropped served only once–in his first match against Steve Johnson in the Monte-Carlo opening round.

The two meetings with Nadal saw Isner record a combined 19 aces in five sets (25 service games) while facing a total of 11 break points. In his eight other outings, the world No. 17 fired a total of 128 aces in 19 sets (104 service games). For those counting, that means Isner is averaging 0.76 aces per service game against Nadal and 1.23 aces per service game against all other opponents during this stretch.

Rafael Nadal of Spain returns the ball to John Isner of USA during his third round match against Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland of the Italian Open tennis tournament at the Foro Italico in Rome, Italy, 14 May 2015. EPA/MAURIZIO BRAMBATTI

“I [defended] well from the baseline,” Nadal said after Thursday’s match. “I played with not many mistakes and tried to go for points when I had a chance. I recovered tough balls, had good movement and a few very good passing shots. That is very good for my confidence, too. In general, I think I played very well.”

Next up for the world No. 7 is Stan Wawrinka. The head-to-head series is being dominated 12-1 by Nadal, who is a perfect 5-0 against the Swiss on clay. Eleven clay-court sets have all gone in favor of Nadal and Wawrinka has never even forced a tiebreaker. They most recently faced each other on the slow stuff two years ago at Roland Garros, where Nadal cruised 6-2, 6-3, 6-1. Wawrinka’s lone victory, of course, came in the 2014 Australian Open final.

“[In the past three weeks] I played 11 very good matches and two bad matches,” Nadal assessed. “I am very happy for that. Let’s try my best tomorrow. It’s another opportunity to confirm positive feelings.”

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand.

Topics: Atp, Internazionali BNL D'Italia, John Isner, Rafa Nadal, Rome tennis, Tennis

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10sBalls_com says:

May 14, 2015 at 8:58 pm

#ROME #TENNIS UPDATE FROM @Dimonator, WE LOOK AT @RafaelNadal / @JohnIsner MATCH & MORE- http://t.co/KITe3v1waN #ATPRoma #RomeMasters #RAFA
Dimonator says:

May 14, 2015 at 9:03 pm

RT @10sBalls_com: #ROME #TENNIS UPDATE FROM @Dimonator, WE LOOK AT @RafaelNadal / @JohnIsner MATCH & MORE- http://t.co/KITe3v1waN #ATPRoma …