Isner saves match point and defeats Del Potro

Isner defeats Del Potro 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, Cincinnati Semi-finals

John Isner came back from match point in the second set to beat Juan Martin Del Potro in the semi-finals of the Cincinnati Masters 1000.

Before the match, John Isner was 0-4 down against the Argentine in their head to head; at 6-7, 3-5 that record did not look like it was going to improve. At 30-30 the Del Potro forehand was on full steam, attacking the Isner backhand and getting him on the run until the Argentine finally forced the error and held match point.

With the Del Potro forehand working so well and the match point coming on the Argentine’s serve, saving the match point looked like it might be a laborious and unlikely task. Luckily for Isner, he did not have to work hard to save it; the prospect of his second Masters Series final of 2013 jangling his nerves or of his opponent’s improved return game getting the better of him, the Argentine threw in a double fault.

A big return from Isner on the deuce point and the American had break point. It was a point he could not have played any better. Isner fed the Del Potro forehand slice, denying him the pace he craved, and after a few forehand rally shots had come his way, Isner injected pace into the rally, striking a forehand down the line winner to get himself back on serve and into the match.

Isner on serve is not a prospect you want to face. The American holds serve better than anyone on the tour and once he gets the set into a tiebreak the odds are of him winning are 70 percent in his favour. Against an opponent struggling on serve, those statistics rise even higher. At 6-6 in the second set breaker, Del Potro serving, Isner once more put his improved return and defense to effective use, retrieving the Del Potro forehand over and over until he found himself in a position to strike a formidable one of his own to force an error and hold set point.

The American did all he could to take the set. He got his first serve in. He moved forward and hit a drop volley. But Del Potro covers the court well for a tall man and he picked it up. In response, Isner hit a volley down the line, only for the Argentine to volley it back into the open court for a winner that had the mostly pro-Isner crowd cooing. to save the set

An ace down the tee earned Isner another set point. A Del Potro service winner saved it. But at 8-8, Del Potro served another double-fault to hand Isner another set point, and on the American’s serve, too. But the Argentine’s great play saved him once again, A big return from and a winning cross court forehand leveling the breaker. Another ace, another set point for Isner. The Argentine could not find his first serve nor his forehand as he made an unforced error to aid Isner in his comebacak.

Back in the contest and spurred on by his home crowd, Isner’s spirit trajectory was as high as his kick serve while Del Potro’s collapsed much like his serve had done at critical moments in the second set. The American broke Del Potro at the start of the third set and then held his nerve to clinch another tight match over a top ten player, his third one in a row.

Isner will next face Rafael Nadal whom he last encountered in the first round of Roland Garros in 2011. That day, he led the Spaniard two sets to one, his two sets won on, unsurprisingly, tie-breaks, before Nadal came back to take the match. It will be the fourth encounter between the two and if Nadal’s form is anything to go by, his win over Tomas Berdych in the semis, a win as intense and clinical as they come, the match has the potential to be an appetising prelude to the upcoming US Open. There the in-form Isner will have a top sixteen seeding and his positioning in any of the top eight’s draw will be anything but welcome especially if he manages to end Nadal’s 14 match hard court winning streak in today’s final.