Isner's Streaks Continue In Atlanta

In a battle of big servers, John Isner again looked nearly impeccable on serve on Saturday at the BB&T Atlanta Open. The second seed blitzed past the third-seeded Gilles Muller 6-4, 6-2 in just 75 minutes to reach his seventh Atlanta final in the past eight years.

Isner reeled off his seventh consecutive win and again didn’t drop serve, erasing all four break points. The 6’10” American has now won seven consecutive matches and held for 69 straight service games, dating back to his title run last week at the Dell Technologies Hall of Fame Open in Newport.

“It was a very good match. Absolutely nothing to complain about today. On and off the court in pretty quick fashion and I certainly will be ready to go tomorrow,” Isner said. “I feel great physically, maybe the best I have felt in quite sometime. More importantly than that I am pretty confident as well.” 

Isner will try to win his eighth consecutive match and his fourth Atlanta title on Sunday when he faces compatriot Ryan Harrison or Brit Kyle Edmund, who face off in Saturday’s second semi-final, scheduled for 7 p.m. local time.

Muller, who reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals earlier this month, had also been nearly untouchable on serve on the Atlanta hard courts. The left-hander had won all 24 of his service games and had erased all six break points. Through his first two matches, Muller had even out-aced Isner, 36 to 23.

But Isner, a three-time Atlanta champion, stepped up and played aggressively while returning. He broke in the third game to lead 2-1.

In the second set, Isner broke Muller twice and then erased three break points after falling down 0/40 while serving for the match at 5-2.

“He made it very tough for me today. I don’t feel like I played a bad match. I maybe didn’t serve well enough today but it’s also because of him, he put a lot of pressure on me,” said Muller, who fell to 2-4 in his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against Isner. “It was very tough out there today. All credit to him. He played a great match.”

Muller, a 2012 Atlanta finalist, reached his fourth Atlanta semi-final. “It’s a perfect start to the hard-court season. I think I made the right choice to come here and get ready for the other tournaments, play in the heat, play on the hard courts,” Muller said. “I got two wins, another semi-final, so it’s all good.”