What a final! As per Isner’s words it wasn’t the prettiest tennis, but who cares when you are the winner?
Berdych once again proved to have some problems with his nerves during important points. The Czech wasted one of his 3 championship points with an incredibly easy backhand volley into the open court. Then it wasn Isner’s powerful service to rescue the American from the defeat.
Isner
“It’s a great feeling. Both my titles this year are the exact same titles I won last year,” said Isner. “Defending a title is not easy. There’s pressure on you coming into the tournament so I think for me to do that, at both Newport and here in Winston-Salem, it should help me a lot going forward in the coming years. I’m absolutely thrilled.
“It was a very good match, an incredible atmosphere. It was a lot of fun to play out there. There were certainly some tense times all throughout the match. At times probably wasn’t the prettiest of tennis, but I was able to gut it out and am very, very proud of that.”
“Last year it served me very well. I won here and made the quarter-finals, lost to Andy Murray in a very tough match,” said Isner. “I’m heading to New York filled with confidence. I’ve played very well since my first round loss at Wimbledon. I’ve only lost three matches, so I’m heading into New York feeling good about myself.”
Berdych
At the end of the day, this tournament has been a big disaster for Tomas as he didn’t win it, he racked only 150 points (42.000usd.. ok that’s not bad), but worse of all he has really spent lots of energies in the last 2 matches both over 2 hours. This can be a big problem in his run at the US Open where he is going to have a not so easy first round against Goffin and he is on a collision path with Federer in the quarters.
“I hope it’s going to be enough time to put this match from my mind and keep all those matches before – and those before were pretty good. Even this one was not bad until the end. It just happens,” said Berdych. “I won a couple of matches, which was the goal and the [reason] why I wanted to come here. I made it pretty successful, but still one I was missing, so it will take some time. Next week, already Monday or Tuesday, I’m starting in New York so it’s not much time to think on the past but to be ready for what’s happening there.”
