The Americans are always very comfortable in… America. John Isner had a convincing tournament on the home soil to defeat Hewitt in straight sets.
It is interesting once again how good he is in playing tiebreaks. The American had to face 5 tiebreaks in all his 5 matches played in Newport to win all of them in style. The final was not any different with John getting an early 4-0 lead in the tiebreak in the first set to winning it at 1. In the second set the Isner broke the Australian in the 3rd game to then win the set 6-4 and wrap up the match in 1f and 32m.
“It feels very good,” said Isner. “It’s never easy coming to a tournament where in a previous year you won it. There’s a lot of pressure on you. You don’t do well, your ranking’s going to drop… I did well, I defended those points and I kept my ranking where it’s at. More importantly than that, I gained a lot of confidence from this week just as I did last year. I had a great, great summer last year. I hope to have much of the same this year.”
Talking about his strenght when playing tiebreaks “I’m always very confident going into a tie-break,” said Isner. “I kept my head this whole week very well. I honestly could’ve lost in the first round, I was down break points in the third set against a really big server. That’s how tennis is sometimes. I kept my head and I was able to persevere.”
Lleyton was also quite positive about his week “It’s done a lot of good,” Hewitt commented. “A lot of positives have come out of this week. Grass is a tough surface to come back on after any kind of surgery, and especially foot surgery, where my movement is such a big thing, because on grass you’re in the wrong positions a lot of the time. You’ve got to have that confidence in your footwork.
“Even at Wimbledon, I didn’t feel totally comfortable with my footwork and it’s taken matches and practice and a lot of time over the last week-and-a-half here in Newport and I feel like that’s starting to come, which is a good thing, not only for the Olympics in a couple week’s time, but obviously looking forward to the US Open and the rest of the year.”
