John Isner to retire from tennis after US Open

NEW YORK -- Big-serving American John Isner, who famously took part in the longest tennis match ever played at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, said Wednesday he will retire from professional tennis after competing in this year's US Open.

Isner -- who defeated France's Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7/9), 7-6 (7/3), 70-68 in an 11-hour epic that took three days to complete at Wimbledon 13 years ago -- confirmed his retirement on social media.

"After 17+ years on the ATP Tour, it's time to say goodbye to professional tennis," Isner wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. "The US Open will be my final event."

"This transition won't be easy but I'm looking forward to every second of it with my amazing family," said Isner, who has four young children with his wife, Maddie. "Time to lace 'em up one last time."

Isner, 38, was a quarter-finalist at Flushing Meadows in 2011 and 2018.

He is the ATP Tour's all-time leader in aces with 14,411 going into the US Open, which starts on Monday.

He was the top-ranked American in the year-end rankings for nine straight years from 2012-2020 and finished inside the top 20 in the world rankings for a decade from 2010-2019.

Isner has won 16 ATP singles titles and eight doubles titles. He was a US Davis Cup regular, posting 15 singles victories and two doubles victories in 18 appearances in the international tournament.

All but two of his ATP singles victories came in the United States, including a 2018 triumph over Alexander Zverev to win the Miami Masters title.

He has won six titles in Atlanta and four in Newport.

But it is arguably his record-breaking epic with Mahut at Wimbledon for which Isner will be best remembered.

Isner hammered down a record 113 aces in the course of the match, which concluded with a jaw-dropping 138-game fifth set.

"Those numbers are etched in my memory," Isner said in an interview years after.

"It's a basketball score, 70-68. It always reminds me of that. I'll never forget these two numbers for as long as I live. It's just crazy."

Agence France-Presse

Zverev becomes youngest Masters finalist in 10 years

ROME, Italy — Germany’s Alexander Zverev became the youngest player in a decade to reach a Masters final when he clinched a gutsy 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-1 win over big-serving American John Isner in Rome on Saturday.

Zverev, 20, will meet either four-time winner Novak Djokovic or Austria’s Dominic Thiem in Sunday’s final.

Djokovic was the previous youngest Masters finalist, going all the way to the title in Miami as a 19-year-old in 2007.

Zverev and Djokovic have never played but Thiem leads their head-to-head 4-1, including all three meetings on clay.

Zverev will climb to a new career high in the rankings at number 14 by reaching the final and would break into the top 10 with the title.

Djokovic, the second seed and the only previous Masters winner still in contention, plays eighth seed Thiem later Saturday after completing his rain-interrupted quarter-final against Juan Martin del Potro to beat the unseeded Argentinian 6-1, 6-4.

Thiem, beaten to the Madrid Masters title by Rafael Nadal last week, avenged his loss by dumping Spain’s former seven-time Rome champion out in the quarters on Friday.

Second-ranked Djokovic had taken a one-set lead over Del Potro, who held a 2-1 lead in the second set before heavy rain and lightning halted play on Friday.

In the WTA event, French Open champion Garbine Muguruza was forced to retire due to a neck injury from her semi-final against Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina.

The Spanish third seed was 1-4 down after just 22 minutes in the first set when she quit, handing the eighth-seeded Svitolina a place in Sunday’s final against Romania’s Simona Halep.

Svitolina will chase a fourth title of the year after trophy triumphs in Taiwan, Dubai and Istanbul.

Muguruza had needed three sets to beat Venus Williams in the quarter-finals on Friday night.

Sixth-seeded Halep, the champion in Madrid last weekend, reached her first final in Rome after sweeping aside Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens 7-5, 6-1 in her semi-final.

“Sometimes a win over a top player gives you confidence,” Halep said after her semi-final.

“Sometimes the work you do before the tournaments gives you confidence that you are ready to go. Sometimes just winning some matches, tough ones, even if in three sets, those are the most important matches.”

source: sports.inquirer.net