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BNP PARIBAS OPEN

March 15, 2016

John Isner

Indian Wells, California

J. ISNER/A, Mannarino

6-4, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Only lost four points on serve today. That's pretty decent.
JOHN ISNER: Yeah, I saw that afterwards. I did not know that, but I guess looking back on it, it does make a little bit of sense I didn't lose too many points on serve.

Everyone knows I can do that. It's the other areas of my game I need to shore up. The first set, you know, I played pretty well. Second set I just kind of went on walkabout a bit.

Relied on my serve of course a lot in the second set. I was able to get through, but going forward I think I need to get a little bit better.

Q. You have been serving really well this year, so how much do you work at making that strength even stronger, or is it shoring up weaknesses?
JOHN ISNER: No, I always work on my serve. I do. Just as everyone does.

It's not something I take for granted. Of course, being a big guy it helps so much, but for me, you know, my motion is pretty fluid. Regardless if I wasn't as tall, I think I would still have a pretty good serve.

I'm always working on my ball toss, as well. There is a lot of things that go into making my serve a very good one besides me just being a very big guy.

But, again, I work on my strengths. Of course I work on my weaknesses, as well. Even though I'm at 30, it's still a process for me. I know I can still play some very good tennis ahead in the future.

Q. Could you talk about the surface and the condition of this tournament? A lot of players say the ball flies really fast and the ball bounces very high. Do you think your play style suits this court?
JOHN ISNER: Yeah, it definitely does. I honestly can't pick a better surface for me, I don't think.

A lot of players maybe don't like it as much. I think the bigger players and the big hitters really enjoy this surface because the ball moves through the air pretty quickly.

At the same time, the court is pretty slow and pretty gritty and it bounces up very high. Gives big players more time to go after their shots.

So I have no complaints here. It's the perfect surface for me. It's not only the surface. It's the conditions, the weather. It's the dry heat. It's all of that. All of that encompassed for me makes a big difference. Allows me to feel very comfortable out there.

Q. Next round you're going to play Nishikori, and you have played him twice last year. Could you talk a little bit about these previous two matches, one you won and the other one he won?
JOHN ISNER: Yeah. Prior to last year I had never played him, which was pretty odd, because we have been in the same tournaments for a very long time.

Now it seems like that's starting to correct itself a little bit. This is the third time I'm going to play him in about a year.

In the Miami match I played an excellent match, one of the best matches I have played all year, hands down. Maybe "the" best match I played all year. Against him in Miami was a very good day for me.

In the Washington final I thought both of us played pretty well. He was obviously better than me. He won it in three sets. We have been pretty evenly matched in our first two contests. We have a rubber match coming up tomorrow. It will be fun.

This is the third time, all on hard courts, in America, so it's a good situation for me. But at the same time, going up against someone as at Kei's level and stature, I will need to play very well to win. He he's a fantastic player and he's been doing it for a very long time.

Q. What's your third best shot?
JOHN ISNER: Third best shot? (Laughter.) Maybe my drop volley, I guess. It's not my backhand, that's for sure. Isn't my return. I have a good overhead. There you go. It's my overhead.

Q. Any time a player like a Taylor Fritz comes around people start talking about the future of American men's tennis. Steve Johnson lost today; you won. How do you see things coming along right now for American men?
JOHN ISNER: I think coming along pretty nicely. We have four players seeded at this tournament. I don't know the last time that's happened.

The players ranked behind me are all younger than me. Sam Querrey, even though he's been around for a long time, he's still a pretty young guy, not old by any means. He's starting to play some very good tennis this year. Starting to, I guess, rediscover his form. In my opinion, there is no reason Sam should ever be outside top 30 of the world.

I think he realizes that now. Got a guy like Steve. Extremely hard worker. Had a great year last year. Always going to be a factor in any tournament he plays because he competes very well and works very hard.

Of course, Jack is on the court right now. An amazing talent. So much talent. His forehand is world class. But then of course you have the younger guys behind those guys with -- as of right now it is Taylor sort of leading the charge. There is a lot of little hype and buzz around the crop of players that are 20 and younger.

So these kids -- I mean, kids, I compete against them now -- but they have a lot of time to grow and develop given how the pro tour has been going the last five, eight years. Players are playing very well in their late 20s and early 30s.

These kids have a lot of time to do a lot of amazing things. You look at Taylor's case. He's already top 80 in the world or something. That's pretty incredible at 18 years old.

He's on a great path, and so are the ones behind him, as well.

Q. The other night Bob and Mike were talking about how great Stadium 2 is.
JOHN ISNER: Yeah.

Q. They said, Hey, it would be great to have a Davis Cup match there.
JOHN ISNER: Yeah.

Q. I think if you look at it, there would be serious problems with staging it in the first three rounds. Having said all that, could you imagine a Davis Cup final in that stadium. You have played in a lot of venues; what do you think that would be like?
JOHN ISNER: In Stadium 2?

Q. Stadium 2.
JOHN ISNER: I think it would be cool. I think all of the Americans would enjoy playing on that court in those conditions. We are all pretty much similar, I guess. Want to use our serves and use our forehands, as well. The court is pretty slow. I think the Bryans actually play best on a slow surface.

So, yeah, I mean, if that comes to fruition, it would be great. We will see what happens. The good thing for us is that we know we are at home in the quarterfinals, and if we win, we're at home again in the semifinals. We are really looking forward to that, and especially me.

Q. And also, we had a very tough go around with Croatia a while ago here in the States. Knowing that, does that give a little bit of an edge or not really?
JOHN ISNER: No, because I didn't even know that. I'm sure the Croatian team, it wasn't Cilic and Coric, either, so it's like two completely different teams now. It's like looking up a basketball stat from the 1980s. It doesn't matter.

I don't think that stat matters at all. We are not looking to exact some revenge from the last time we played them in the United States.

It's not about that.

Q. In the earlier stages of your career, you took losses very hard. You were really cut up for a while. Has that changed at all? Are you a little bit more accepting? I mean, they all sting, for sure, but are you a little bit more accepting of losses these days and get over them a little bit quicker?
JOHN ISNER: No. I have gotten better at losses now. I think I have realized that you do learn a lot from losses. When I was younger, it was sort of hard to see that right away.

But losing stinks. I still take it pretty hard. But I think you're right. Maybe not as bad as I did maybe five, seven years ago.

I think the most important thing for me is I know I have a pretty distinct shelf life on my career. I have had a lot of very good moments, more good moments than bad moments in my career, so I try to focus on those more so than the bad moments.

Of course I'm going to lose a lot of matches. You know, when I do lose, of course when I win, as well, always need to keep reminding myself how lucky I am that I do what I do.

That's what I always try to do. It puts a pretty good perspective on things.

Q. Do you have any desires for where to put Davis Cup against Croatia? You said these kind of conditions are perfect.
JOHN ISNER: These are good conditions, but I think there is a lot of factors that go into it. It's the conditions that our team likes to play on; it's the town that's most excited about, you know, that would be most excited about bringing a Davis Cup tie like that to their town.

So we get the pick of surface, of course. I think wherever it is, whether West Coast, East Coast, Northeast, wherever it may be, we will pick the very best surface for us.

Q. Do you like the idea of keeping it in small towns or -- you haven't really been in a huge city. You were in Chicago, but that was...
JOHN ISNER: Yeah, it wasn't Chicago. It was an hour outside of it. I like the small-town venue. You don't want to go to New York, right? So much going on there. LA.

You pick a small town. Everyone gets excited about it. Again, a venue for the quarterfinal tie, I wouldn't imagine it's going to be massive. You want to -- you know, if we can get 8,000, 10,000-seat venue and sell it out, that would be unbelievable. That's something we are all looking forward to.

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