Catching up with John Isner

April 29, 2009

John Isner keeps a-winning.

He captured the ATP Challenger tournament in Tallahassee, Fla., on Saturday, taking five straight matches over some of the best young players on the pro tour.

In the first round, the four-time Georgia All- American (2004-07) defeated fellow American Scoville Jenkins, 6-4, 6-1. Then Isner, seeded seventh, downed Bjorn Rehnquist, 6-1, 7-6 (4); Prakash Amritraj, 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4; Dana Udomchoke, 1-6, 6-4, 6-2; and in the finals, fellow American Donald Young, 7-5, 6-4.

Young had upset second-seeded Robert Kendrick, a former All-American at Pepperdine, in the semifinals.

It was the third Challenger singles crown for Isner. Previously he won Challenger events at Lubbock, Texas, and Lexington, Ky.

“I’ve improved my singles play,” Isner told me on the phone Monday. “I’m returning serve better by standing back a little deeper.”

Next up for Isner is a qualifying tournament this week at Boca Raton, Fla. Five top young Americans comprise the field. It will be on a clay surface and the winner will receive the American wild card entry in the French Open in May.

“You were with Mikael Pernfors (Georgia’s NCAA champion in 1984-85) when he reached the French finals in 1986, weren’t you?” Isner asked me.

“That’s right,” I replied. “Pernfors upset Wimbledon champion Boris Becker in the quarterfinals; Henri Leconte, the French champion, in the semis, but lost to world champion Ivan Lendl in the finals. Incidentally, no one in the tourney served as hard as you do.”

Isner added that he was sorry to see Georgia lost in the Southeastern Conference semifinals last Saturday and I told him:

“We had tough luck this season: losing our top two players to graduation (Travis Helgeson and Luis Flores) and lost our top two recruits (an Australian who turned pro and a Russian who failed to pass the entrance exams). And we have done better than I expected us to do.”

Isner concluded: “I’ll be back in Georgia week after next playing in a Challenger tournament in Savannah.”

I concluded by saying: “I’ll ask Sonny Seiler to have UGA VII in the stands barking for you.”