John Isner: 'Roger would have won with or without my injury'
Like everyone predicted, including himself, John Isner had a slim chance of defending the Miami crown he won last year, finding the form in February but lacking that finishing that that would give him the confidence to fight against the best at Hard Rock Stadium. Despite that, John put quite an effort to reach the title match, defeating five rivals in two tight sets (nine tie breaks and one 7-5 score), coming from a break down in both sets against Felix Auger-Aliassime to secure the place in the sixth Masters 1000 final where he faced Roger Federer. The 20-time Grand Slam champion proved to be too strong, beating the American 6-1, 6-4 in just over an hour to leave John empty-handed and claim the 28th Masters 1000 crown.
Isner was powerless against the toughest possible rival who dominated on both serve and return, especially in the opening set that lasted less than 25 minutes. In the middle of the second set, Isner started to struggle with a pain in the left foot and barely finished the match without retiring, losing serve at 4-5 to send Roger over the finish line.
"I didn't get taped during the match but before. Somewhere along in the first set I started feeling some pain on the top of my foot, and it didn't go away, only kept getting worse. It's a terrible feeling because you're on an island out there, and you have no teammates to hide behind and going up against the greatest player ever, playing in this incredible atmosphere, and my foot is killing me. Not that I would have won the match, anyway, let's make that clear, but I think I could have made for a more interesting match and one that was a little more fun. I mean, I knew at 3-4, whatever, I knew I wasn't going to win. Which is a weird feeling, being on serve in the finals of a match and knowing that I wasn't going to win. Look, Roger was too good. In the first five games, I was fine.
Nothing was bothering me. He was all over me. Then, this weird pain on the top of my foot, we'll see what is. I'm hoping it's nothing, but we'll see. No, I have never had anything like this before, ever. I mean, I have had a few injuries in my career. I have been very fortunate. I have stayed healthy throughout my career but something happened today. It wasn't like a certain point, either. I just all of a study started feeling something, and it just kept getting a little worse, getting worse and worse as the match went on."
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2CNcBAN
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