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Isner upsets Haas in San Jose
22/02/2008 07:55 - (SA)
San Jose - Towering American John Isner fought off three match points to upset third seed Tommy Haas 4-6 7-6 6-3 in the second round of the San Jose Open on Thursday.
Down 6-3 in the second set tie-break, the 6ft 9ins (2.057
metre) Isner fired down two huge serves and then pushed the
German back deep in the court and charged.
Haas flung a forehand passing shot attempt long.
Isner then coolly snapped up the next two points to take
the set.
"He hit a really good serve that kind of jammed me and I
tried to get away from it and hit a backhand deep and forced a
mistake and that was big," said Isner of the third match point.
"From there, I had nothing to lose because I was already
down three match points and I played pretty loose and some of
my best tennis."
Isner needed just a single break in the third and had all
the momentum, serving out with two aces and two service winners
to take the contest.
Shoulder surgery
"The last game was one of the best I ever played," said Isner, who bombed 22 aces in the match. "Serving out a big match, I had a lot of adrenaline and I went out and swung as
hard as I could and fortunately they went in."
Haas, who returned from shoulder surgery last week, wasn't
thrilled he was unable to take his chances.
"Its disappointing when you have three match points but he came up with some good shots," the former world number two said "But that's tennis, that's life."
After a breakthrough summer of 2007, where he reached the
final of Washington and took a set off top-ranked Roger Federer
in the third round of the US Open, the 22-year-old Isner has
struggled finding his place in the game, but indoors against
Haas, his nearly unreturnable serve and improving net game
shone through.
"I usually don't play that well from behind, so I feel like I'm playing with house money for the rest of the tournament," 106th-ranked Isner said. "My goal was to break the top 100 and I think I've already done that (by his results in San Jose).
"I haven't set that many long term goals, but I'm trying to work as hard as I can out there and see what happens."
Isner will face Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the
quarter-finals.
Another American, Mardy Fish, beat Germany's Denis
Gremelmayr 6-7 6-3 6-3 and will next face the winner of the
match between top seed Andy Roddick and Japanese teenage
sensation Kei Nishikori.
Taiwan's Lu Yen-Hsun overcame American Wayne Odesnik 6-4
6-4 and will play fourth seed Radek Stepanek.
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