American John Isner to retire from tennis after US Open
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John Isner was the top-ranked American in the year-end rankings for nine straight years from 2012-2020.
PHOTO: AFP
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NEW YORK – Big-serving American John Isner, who famously took part in the longest tennis match ever played at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, said on Wednesday he will retire from professional tennis after competing in the upcoming 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, dubbed “the endless match”, 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. The US Open will be my final event,” the 38-year-old wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
“This transition won’t be easy but I’m looking forward to every second of it with my amazing family. Time to lace ’em up one last time,” added Isner, who has four young children with wife Maddie.
Isner 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 to 2020 and finished inside the top 20 in the world rankings for a decade from 2010 to 2019.
The towering 2.08m 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. He 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. 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,” he said in an interview years after. AFP
