John Isner is already the fourth top 10 professional in the top-class field of participants. Tournament director Ralf Weber: “One of the players of the season, a favourite for the title win.” Record winners Roger Federer, Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem are also chasing the title.
He certainly has his place in tennis history, the man who is only called “Big John” because of his height of 2.08 meters. John Isner, 32-year-old American, won the longest professional match of all time in 2010. It took three days to play Frenchman Nicolas Mahut on the grass at Wimbledon – it lasted a total of eleven hours and five minutes.
The last set was won by serve specialist Isner with 70:68 games, this round alone lasted 491 minutes. Now, at the 26th GERRY WEBER OPEN in Halle-Westfalen from 16 to 24 June 2018, German tennis fans will be able to watch the friendly US boy from Greensboro in the state of North Carolina up close for the first time.
With debutant John Isner, the current Masters winner from Miami, Germany’s most important ATP tennis event in the GERRY WEBER STADION will further enhance the already top-class field of participants and add a fourth Top 10 professional. The quartet of top ten stars is led by Halle’s record champion Roger Federer (ATP World Ranking 2). In addition to Alexander Zverev (ATP 3) and Austria’s Ace Dominic Thiem (ATP 7), Isner (ATP 9), the US number one, will also take part in the race for the winner’s trophy in Lindenstadt in East Westphalia.
“I am very much looking forward to my start in Halle. I’ve heard so much good news about the tournament,” says Isner. Tournament director Ralf Weber is also happy about the prominent new addition to the player list: “John is one of the players of the hour, one of this season’s players. “I’m sure he’ll be one of the favourites in the title race.”
After more than ten years on the ATP World Tour, John Isner is currently experiencing the most successful phase of his career – outstandingly documented by his first career success at a Masters competition. With the Miami final triumph against Alexander Zverev, Isner returned to the top ten, equalizing his all-time high on the ATP world rankings with ninth place. In the last final, which was played on Key Biscayne Island, Isner came back spectacularly after losing his opening set against Germany’s number one.
Now the two finalists will meet again at the 26th GERRY WEBER OPEN in Halle-Westfalen. In Miami, Isner had already shown his strong form with two further victories over the top ten players Juan Martin del Potro from Argentina and the Croatian Marin Cilic before the final triumph against Zverev. “We present the strongest field in the history of the tournament. The spectators can look forward to a great fight for the winner’s trophy,” says tournament director Ralf Weber.
In the professional business John Isner has made a name for himself as an accurate serve. In his record victory at Wimbledon, the serve giant beat Mahut 113 aces eight years ago, more than any player in a match before and after. Recently, he was the fourth player in the ATP history to break the 10,000 mark for service direct hits. Isner holds another record together with tennis pensioner Tommy Haas: He won an ATP tournament without even having admitted a single break point. That was last year, at the competition in Newport (Rhode Island).
John Isner has won thirteen ATP titles so far in his career and celebrated his first cup triumph at the start of the 2010 season in Auckland, New Zealand. At the tournament in Newport, on grass, he has already won the trophy three times, in 2011, 2012 and 2017.