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U.S. OPEN SERIES MEDIA CONFERENCEJuly 23, 2018John IsnerNew York, NY, USA ERIC SCHUSTER: Thank you, everyone, for joining us as we usher in the 15th season of the US Open Series today with the men's BB&T Atlanta Open. That will be followed by the women's Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose in week two. Joining us on today's conference call from Atlanta is John Isner. The defending champion has been a dominant presence there since the tournament began in 2010, amassing a 27-4 match record, appearing in the singles final seven times and winning four titles. We can now open it up to questions for John. Q. John, I wanted you to talk a little bit about the mental game versus the physical game, being that you've taken part in two of the longest matches ever. And because you have had success, you can probably weigh in on that topic the best. JOHN ISNER: Yeah, the mental game is certainly not something you can really see. It's definitely an intangible aspect out there on the court. Us tennis players, we work so hard on the physical side of things to make sure that we're in good enough shape to withstand long matches, withstand matches in pretty rough heat. The mental side of things, pretty much in all sports, in my opinion, is more important. Of course, as I said, you have to take care of the physical side of things. You have to be able to perform out there athletically. But once you have that buttoned up, being mentally strong, being able to get yourself in a good frame of mind in the most critical moments of a match helps so much. For me in particular, I feel like I've done a good job of that this year. Certainly there's some cases where I've fallen short a little bit mentally, maybe physically. For the most part, it's something that myself, I feel like I'm doing pretty well. Q. Is that something you can do anything to practice or it just happens? JOHN ISNER: No, there's certainly some things. Everyone is going to work differently. For everyone, I do think experience does help. For someone like myself who has been on tour for a long time now, being able to accrue all those years on tour, allows me to be a lot wiser. From that, I've been a little bit more calm on the court. I think it's been a big help. Q. John, my question is, when you started playing well this year, you're 33 years old, going to have a baby, maybe this is kind of a swan song, how your vision of yourself, your career, particularly going forward, has been affected by this obvious rise in your playing? JOHN ISNER: I think for me seeing the players that have always been ranked ahead of me, I'm talking about most in particular Roger Federer, he's even alien, different than anyone else. But seeing him have some success at 34, 35, 36 years old, that's a very encouraging sign for a player like myself who is entering his low to mid 30s. I've also always known that I'm someone that does everything I possibly can to get myself as physically strong as I can be. When I finish with a tournament, I fly back home, I'm generally in the gym right away. Everything I do is to allow myself to really hold up all season long. From that, I think I've been able to feel physically probably the best I've felt in 11 years on tour, which is cool to think about, considering I'm 33 right now. I still do believe that my best tennis is ahead of me. I've said that for a long time. It's something I firmly believe right now. Now, there will come a time where Father Time is probably going to get the best of me. As of right now, I don't think it's there yet. Q. What parts of your game and your style are conducive for you to really extend your career? JOHN ISNER: Yeah, no, for sure. The style I play definitely helps in that regard. Being able to play shorter points on serve, being able to hold serve like I do, I think it takes a certain level of stress off of me and a certain level of wear and tear off of me, as well. That certainly helps. As I said earlier, experience helps, as well. I've seen some cases where players have gotten into their 30s, maybe they only have a year or two left, and they haven't really handled it that well. Sometimes it's your last year on tour, your ranking is starting to drop, you start to become I guess less clutch because you're putting more pressure on yourself. I've made a conscious effort not to do that, to do everything I possibly can to take the pressure off of me. As we know, tennis players have enormous pressure out there on the court every time we step out on the match court. It's something I've spoken to my coaches about. It's something I've spoken to people very close to me about. I've been able to get myself, I think, in a very good mental spot, which has been the main reason for my success this year. Q. You said at the last press conference at Wimbledon that it was really on you to hit the reset button as you moved forward from that loss, which I thought was an interesting frame of mind or choice of words. Could you just tell us briefly how you have gone about hitting that reset button, and are you pleased with that? JOHN ISNER: I guess you can never really know. In the next match in Atlanta, whether I win or lose, I don't want it to be because that Wimbledon match is still lingering. Only I'm going to be able to know if that was the case or not. The result in my first match really doesn't matter. Everyone is so good, I can lose to anyone. But as you said, I think I have done a pretty good job of hitting that reset button. I went home to North Carolina immediately after that match for two days, just was with my family, my niece and nephew who are almost two years old, playing with them, and getting some practice, as I'm going to have a kid in September. I think being able to break away from tennis, not turn on the Wimbledon final, that would have been very tough to watch, just break away from tennis as much as I possibly can. When I got back to Dallas, I got back in the gym immediately, just did everything I can to get my body back up to shape. I think I've done that very well so far. Look, right here in Atlanta, I'm not thinking about that Wimbledon match. Of course, I was thinking about it for at least 48 hours afterwards. Right now it's a distant memory. I think I've done a pretty good job. Q. A much more distant memory. We'll see you in D.C. It's the 50th anniversary of that tournament. I don't know if you realize or if it registers, but in your case, what was its significance as a young pro in 2007 when you had such a great success and reached the final in such unusual fashion there? In the years since, is it one in a series of tune-ups as you switch from grass to hard court? JOHN ISNER: What was the second question, I'm sorry? Q. Maybe I'm taking too much of your time. Let's just focus on what it meant to you in 2007. You were a few months removed from Georgia. I imagine that's always going to be a part of your résumé that stands out, but maybe not. JOHN ISNER: No, for sure. It definitely will. I had a pretty abnormal rise in the rankings because of Washington. Q. John, wondering about your schedule going down the rest of the season. There's a lot of events after September. Do you plan to take more time off? Will we see more or less of you going into the fall? JOHN ISNER: Yeah, for sure. Definitely the most important day of my life is coming up in September. It doesn't appear that I will be making any appearance in Asia. You can pretty much count on that because I'm going to have to be there for my wife and be there for my daughter. Assuming everything goes smoothly, I should be able to play this whole summer, then when it's all said and done get back home. Q. Davis Cup then also out, I assume? JOHN ISNER: I have to talk to Courier about that. It could very well be a very tough ask of me to go over to Croatia. I'm going to play that one by ear. Q. You were talking about your age and everything. I wanted to ask about what you've been doing to play smarter and not harder recently. You mentioned that. How has that played a role as you play this summer, tapering your schedule? JOHN ISNER: No, for sure, when I'm home, my main focus is everything I do off the court. That doesn't mean that I'm neglecting time on the practice court. But for me, especially because I know how my body is, I know how I react to certain things, I need to focus on my body and gaining strength, gaining flexibility, eating as healthy as I possibly can. Then when the time comes, get on the court and practice all the right things on the court. So what I'm doing off the court, it's a lot of weight training. I do conditioning at SoulCycle, believe it or not. I do a lot of pilates, as well. I'll spend every bit of three hours a day working out, making sure I'm staying fit, flexible, gaining strength on top of that. Q. Do you believe that's helped with the mental side of things, to take you away from a tennis focus? JOHN ISNER: I think so. I think you're absolutely right. I've been on the tour for so long, I've hit so many balls, been around tennis my whole life. I know how to hit a serve, hit a tennis ball. I don't stress about practice as much. As I said before, I'm not neglecting practice by any means. I'm getting out there on the court. The most important thing for me is to make sure I'm feeling healthy and nothing is bugging me. As long as that's the case, I can go out on the court and I can perform pretty well. Q. What sort of advice would you give to Zverev, who is young and super talented? I know you played him five times. He doesn't quite succeed in the majors. You are succeeding more in the majors now. What is the difference for you? What does he have to learn? JOHN ISNER: Well, I mean, me personally, he's actually a really good friend of mine. We've practiced together for a long time. We keep in touch on WhatsApp, as well. I really like Sascha so much. I think he's an unbelievably nice kid. As far as advice I would give him, I wouldn't give him any advice. He's going to figure it out on his own. It comes with the territory. With someone who has had as much success as him, it comes with the territory for people to question his Grand Slam results. For a player of his caliber, his results have not been there. Look, like I said, he's going to figure it out. I know he has a very good team in his corner. It's only a matter of time. I firmly believe that. I think he believes that, as well. As long as he keeps doing the right things, I don't think the press will be asking him that particular question much longer. Q. I wanted to ask you about your serve. It's one of the best in tennis. I want to know if you were really good at it when you were young or if it took a while to start it out? Was it something that was always easy for you? JOHN ISNER: No, I mean, it's not an easy shot, but for me it's something that has always come naturally. I've actually never been taught, like, service motion. I think I have a very good, pure service motion. It's just one that I've always had. I've tinkered with it here and there, but I've never made any drastic changes to my serve whatsoever. I never had really any coaches try to change my serve or I wouldn't be working with them, if they thought that was needed. Look, it's something that's always come pretty natural to me, something I've worked on my whole life. I think I have I've gotten it to the point where it's one of the most devastating weapons in tennis. Q. I know you love the US Open. Are you looking forward to competing it in again? JOHN ISNER: Yeah, no doubt I am. It's such a good tournament. I always play well there. But I haven't, in my opinion, done really that well at the US Open. I've always been solid. It's a tournament that I think is tailor made for me. Playing at home, playing on a hard court, which I love. It's a tournament that I can very well do some good things at. As long as I'm fit and healthy, I'm going to be looking forward to it. I can't wait to get back out to Flushing Meadows. ERIC SCHUSTER: Thank you, John. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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