John Isner overwhelmed Gilles Muller of Luxembourg in the third set to win 7-5, 6-7 (3/7), 6-1 on Saturday and reach the Atlanta Tennis Championships final for the second straight year.
Isner, the No. 3 seed, will face fellow American and top seed Mardy Fish in the final. Fish beat Ryan Harrison 6-2, 6-4.
Fish, the world No. 9, beat Isner in last year’s Atlanta final and has not lost a set this week. Isner can improve his No. 35 ranking by beating Fish.
Photo: AFP
Coming off a victory in the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships on the grass courts in Newport, Rhode Island, two weeks ago, Isner said his game is soaring with his confidence on Atlanta’s hard courts.
“I’ve been waiting for this feeling for about four or five months,” Isner said. “Now that I’ve got it, I don’t want to let it go.”
Isner’s attempt at back-to-back wins resembles Fish’s climb last year. Fish had never won two straight tournaments before winning in Newport and Atlanta.
“I came in on a roll,” Fish said. “I had never won two tournaments in a row last year. I felt like I was a different player than in years past and had yet to prove it. That was sort of the start of my run to the top 10.”
The 2.06m-tall Isner, who is best known for his powerful serves, said he is making good decisions that help him enjoy a more complete game.
“It’s as simple as confidence,” Isner said. “I always play my best when I’m confident. I move my best when I’m confident. I’m not the fastest guy out there, but I feel I’ve been moving well this week, and that comes with having a clear mind and making the right decisions on the court.”
In the key game of the match, Isner hit an overhand winner to break Muller’s serve for a 2-0 lead in the third set. Muller reacted by slamming his racket into the court, demolishing it.
Muller never recovered and Isner broke the left-hander’s serve again for a 4-0 lead.
“I thought I made a lot of hard work in the second set to win that set and then right away in the beginning of the third one, I threw all my chances away,” Muller said. “It was hard to take.”
It was the second straight year Isner had beaten Muller in three sets at the Atlanta tournament.
? GERMAN OPEN
AP, HAMBURG, Germany
France’s Gilles Simon rallied to beat Mikhail Youznhy of Russia 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 on Saturday to set up a German Open final against Nicolas Almagro.
Almagro defeated fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 6-1.
The fifth-seeded Simon will be looking for his second title of the year in the final against the third-seeded Almagro. The two have split their previous two matches, but Almagro won the one on clay.
Simon, who won in Sydney in January, lost his first seven matches against Youzhny, but he has now beaten him twice this year.
Simon served six aces and saved 10 of 13 break points against the fourth-seeded Russian.
Almagro fired seven aces against none for Verdasco and won 83 percent of his first service points.
Almagro is looking for his fourth title of the year.
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