Just call him Big John. Not to be messed with from now on.
John Isner exploded into the top 10 with a fantastic 7-6 (7), 3-6, 7-6 (5) victory Saturday over world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, lighting up a cloudy day in Indian Wells, Calif., with a truly memorable performance at the BNP Paribas Open to reach his first ATP Masters Series final.
He'll face Roger Federer, who beat Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-4 in Saturday's other semifinal. Sunday's final will be a rematch of last month's Davis Cup duel in Switzerland — won by Isner.
This time last year, Isner, the 6-foot-9 giant out of the University of Georgia was struggling for form and confidence. Even just a couple of weeks ago in Delray Beach, Fla., where he lost to Kevin Anderson, Isner was bemoaning the fact he had not brought the confidence boost of that Davis Cup victory over Federer back onto the tour with him.
But this, surely, will change him forever as a player. He went toe-to-toe with the best player in the world and won on merit. Yes, it was that blockbuster serve that propelled him to victory, but it was more than that. The forehand, which had spilled errors in his previous match against Gilles Simon, was a consistently threatening weapon this time. Above all, however, it was the mental attitude he took on court — the attitude that had him attacking the Djokovic second serve with aggressive returns and the forward propulsion that sent him into the net with a couple of giant strides.
As Djokovic noted afterward, it was the 10th game of the first set, with the Serb serving for it at 5-4, that proved to be the turning point. Djokovic began with a double fault and then, after Isner had come up with a great backhand volley that landed on the baseline, Novak challenged another Isner shot that landed plum on the line on break point. But the call was good and the initiative had been snatched from his grasp.
More drama in the tiebreaker as Djokovic double faulted again to go 4-6 down but saved two set points — one off the Isner serve — with penetrating returns. So Isner had to do it again, and, after a volley error from his opponent, he grabbed his third set point when Djokovic netted a backhand service return — not off a first serve but off the American’s second delivery, which is often no picnic to deal with either.
Isner agreed that the 5-4 game in the first set was critical. "It gave me momentum. The first set was really key. I knew I could win after that."
Djokovic looked like his usual self in the second set, eliminating all the errors and taking it with ominously calm authority on one break. But Isner was not impressed. He continued to believe as he kept stepping up his ace count (it ended at 21, his highest count of the tournament) and answered the crisis of a break point against him in the seventh game with a delivery clocked at 143 mph, the fastest of the match. How’s that for cool?
Isner was handed an immediate advantage in the deciding tiebreaker when Djokovic went wide with an off forehand on the second point. It was now a battle of wills as well as skills, and Djokovic snatched back the mini-break with a towering, pinpoint lob that sailed over the big man’s head and landed smack on the baseline. But at 2-3, Djokovic put in a hittable second serve and Isner went for it and struck a thunderous forehand winner down the line. There was no coming back from that. Djokovic saved the first two match points on his own serve, but Isner, having led 6-3, still had one to come on his own. The delivery never came back and the world No. 1 was beaten.
“All you can do is shake hands and say, 'Well done,’ ” Djokovic said afterward. “There’s always a lot of pressure playing somebody who serves that well. I wasn’t lucky on a couple of calls, but he took his opportunities and he deserved it.”
For Djokovic, it was all a matter of belief on Isner’s part.
“It’s a belief that you can be in the top 10,” Djokovic said. “In the match, he started believing when I played a poor game at 5-4 in the first set. He came up with some great groundstrokes, too. In the end, it could have gone either way, but I thought I played a good match.”
Isner's attitude had been bullish from the start.
"Going in I knew I had to stay loose and go for my shots," he said. "I knew I was going to make a lot of mistakes, but I also knew I was going to hit some winners. It was very special when the last ball went by him and I knew I had won the match. It was a weird feeling, a very nice feeling. It's something you don't experience every day. So I was trying to take it all in."
