Top-seeded John Isner won the Atlanta Open on Sunday, beating second-seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (2), 7-6 (7/2) in the tallest final in ATP history.
The 2.08m Isner, who lost in the Atlanta final in 2010 and 2011 to fellow American Mardy Fish, won his seventh career title. Anderson, standing 2.03m, was seeded second.
The pro-Isner crowd had to sweat during the longest tour final — 2 hours, 54 minutes — this season.
Nobody should have been surprised that it came down to tiebreakers.
“This is a tournament where I could have been out in my first match. I lived on the edge all week, and seemed to come through for the good every time,” Isner said after winning two of three tiebreakers to push his ATP-best tiebreaker record to 26-7. “It feels good to be on the right side.”
Isner played at least one tiebreaker in all four of Atlanta matches (seven total), and he played at least one tiebreaker in 11 of 13 matches prior to Atlanta, 17 overall.
When Anderson snapped Isner’s streak of 12 straight tiebreaker wins to capture the first set, there was cause for concern. In all eight previous Isner-Anderson meetings, the winner of the first set won the match.
Anderson won the first set tiebreaker, 7-3, as Isner unleashed a couple errant forehands following his own serves.
Isner also found trouble early in the second set. Trailing 1-0, he faced a triple service break. After battling back to deuce twice, he served one of his 24 aces on the way to holding serve. Isner had 95 aces in four matches.
He faced 11 service breaks on Sunday and won them all, often with aces. He missed on his only chance to break Anderson’s serve.
Getting to that third tiebreaker was dicey for Isner.
Trailing 5-6, he faced two match points. The first time, Isner boomed a 230kph ace. The second time — in a game that was at deuce five times — Anderson sent an unforced backhand error into the net.
The third tiebreaker was another 7-2 walkover.
Anderson served first and after his first found the net, Isner correctly guessed at what was coming.
Isner returned and Anderson sent a backhand into the net. Isner moved to 3-0 with a 227kph ace and a 230kph winner.
On his last serve, Isner lasered a 235kph winner for a 6-1 lead. Anderson won the next point on serve, but the match ended when he went to the net following his serve and sent another backhand wide.
Anderson’s service game was broken just once in 11 sets in Atlanta, but in the third tiebreaker on Sunday, Isner won points on Anderson’s first, third and fifth serves.
Isner lost in the 2010 and 2011 Atlanta finals.
“It feels amazing because I lost to Mardy [Fish] twice, and losing to [eventual winner] Andy [Roddick] last year in the semis,” said Isner, who survived a third-set triple service break to force a tiebreaker, before beating Lleytton Hewitt in the semis. “I’ve been super close.”
Isner earned US$98,700 and will move up from his world ranking of 22 and likely pass Sam Querry (No. 20) as the top American. Isner is 6-3 against Anderson, who began the tournament ranked No. 21. Anderson took home US$52,000.
France’s Edouard Roger-Vasselin and the Netherlands’ Igor Sijsling won the doubles title, beating Britain’s Colin Fleming and Jonathan Marry 7-6, 6-3.
SWISS OPEN
AFP, GSTAAD, Switzerland
Mikhail Youzhny beat Dutch “mountain man” Robin Haase 6-3, 6-4 on Sunday to become the first Russian in nearly two decades to lift the honors at the high-altitude Swiss Open.
The 31-year-old duplicated the feat of Yevgeny Kafelnikov in 1995 as he improved to a perfect 5-0 record over Haas, the ATP No. 57.
The 65-minute final played in bright sunshine, which has characterized the summer clay week in the Alpine village at 800m, marked the first trophy for Youzhny since 18 months ago in Zagreb. He won his last on clay more than three years ago in Munich.
Despite hailing from the flatlands of the Netherlands, Haase has made his best results in similar conditions to Gstaad, winning the last two editions of the tournament in the Austrian ski resort of Kitzbuehel. He is traveling there to begin his title defense this week.
Youzhny broke once per set, for 5-3 and the first and early in the second. However, he had to recover from 0-30 down as he served for victory, requiring three match points to get the job done.
The Russian lost a final last month in Halle on grass to Roger Federer, who along with compatriot and No. 10 Stanislas Wawrinka had been billed as the anchors of the event.
SWISS OPEN
AP, UMAG, Croatia
Tommy Robredo won the Croatia Open on Sunday, beating Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-0, 6-3 for his 12th career title and second this year.
The Spaniard won the opening set in only 18 minutes, losing just six points with Fognini helpless to reverse the rout from the clay-court baseline. Fognini broke Robredo twice in the second set, but could only hold serve once himself.
Robredo also won on clay at the Grand Prix Hassan II in April in Casablanca, Morocco. Eleven of his 12 titles have been on the surface.
The result halted an impressive run by Fognini. The Italian captured two titles in winning 13 straight matches en route to the Umag final. He won both tournaments in Germany, in Stuttgart two weeks ago and Hamburg on Aug. 21.
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