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WIMBLEDON

July 1, 2016

John Isner

London, England

J. ISNER/M. Barton
7‑6, 7‑6, 7‑6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Three tiebreaks. How are you feeling so far?
JOHN ISNER: I feel fine. Yeah, the rain delay came at a good time. To be honest, I was sort of losing my way a little bit there prior to that rain delay, and just like my first‑round match was able to get back in the set and went into another tiebreaker. I'm happy about that.
It's a tricky match. He serves very well, very well. Hits the ball flat. Was hitting a lot of winners out there.
Glad to get through it, for sure. I think I was a little bit tentative out there at times, but I'm happy to move on and I'm looking forward to my next one.

Q. If you can't finish or get on tomorrow, do you think you should play on Sunday?
JOHN ISNER: I think so. But I know it's Wimbledon and it's all about tradition here. Couple years ago I was scheduled to play Lopez in the third round on Saturday, and I wanted to play him on Saturday because he was really tired. He had played both weeks before, made the finals of both weeks. It rained all day on Saturday, and then they didn't play on Sunday, either.
But if we don't get it in tomorrow, I would like to play on Sunday. But we'll see what they decide.

Q. You have often said you play for yourself. It's an individual game, obviously. But is there any kind of buzz among the Americans and a lot of nice results?
JOHN ISNER: There is on the men's side. The women's side speaks for itself. I mean, I don't need to name the players, especially the one at the top of the game and of course Madison doing so well and Venus, of course, still there.
We're doing well. The top four Americans currently are all still in it. I think we're the only four left. Sam just won the first set. And Steve has got his mojo back. Jack's playing well. So things are looking up for us. We have a good core group of guys.

Q. Go a little deeper into that. Has it just been a matter of sort of determination and just commitment?
JOHN ISNER: I don't think so. I mean, I don't think determination and commitment was lacking in the past. I just think that grass suits some of us pretty well. I mean, I consider grass Sam's best surface and I would consider it Steve's best surface, as well. Probably not Jack's best, but Jack, he can play on any surface. He's athletic and quick and just how good of a tennis player he is.
I just think it's kind of a little storm of guys coming into this tournament with some confidence and enjoy playing on the grass and using our weapons to the best of our abilities.

Q. Getting way ahead of ourselves, but if Sam beats Novak, what would your thoughts be on that?
JOHN ISNER: To be totally honest, I wouldn't ‑‑I mean, I would be a little surprised. I would not be shocked. Sam has the game to pull off something like that with how he can serve and how he can hit his forehand and how he moves so well for someone his size.
That first set was critical. I don't know if you saw the tiebreaker. He won it like five times. Novak kept making these returns and stabs, but that was huge. Had Sam not won that first set it wouldn't be looking too good. He's one set up and playing with confidence. Hopefully he can keep it going.

Q. Is that preventive on the arm? Anything in particular?
JOHN ISNER: Yeah, elbow has been bothering me pretty much all year. That's the reason I missed Madrid and Rome this year. Right now it's preventive, and I think it's more of a situation these balls are heavy here and conditions are heavy. On again, off again. Just little stress on the elbow. But I'm fine.

Q. Did you see on Twitter someone asked Andy Roddick if his serve was better than yours.
JOHN ISNER: I did see that last night.

Q. He said no chance.
JOHN ISNER: He always says you can't teach 6'10".

Q. What do you think?
JOHN ISNER: I'll take his word for it. It's better than Andy's (smiling). I'll take Andy's career, as well. I'll take the serve.

Q. Can I ask you how emotional you feel when you walk back onto court 18?
JOHN ISNER: Yeah.

Q. And with the rain, you were going on and off and on and off again.
JOHN ISNER: Yeah, it's something I'm used to on that court. I can't help but think about it. On the way to the court today, walking up to it, I didn't look at that plaque at all. I wanted to block it out and try not to think too much about that match, especially today.
It's hard not to, especially when that plaque is sitting there and it's going to be there forever. You know, you hear people in the crowd saying, Oh, this is your court.

Q. It must be so bizarre being part of history and still being young and active.
JOHN ISNER: Yeah. Thank you for calling me young. But, yeah, exactly. Same with Nicolas. He's still going.

Q. Did you pick a different chair side from that epic match?
JOHN ISNER: Today? You know what? That's a great question. I think I was on the same side of...

Q. The way you ‑‑yeah.
JOHN ISNER: But maybe we switched. I don't know, actually. That's a good question. Yeah, no, but now, if I had to guess, I think I was on the same side but that was not on purpose.

Q. I wanted to ask you earlier about your dad's effort, 12 votes short. Talk about the experience.
JOHN ISNER: He was winning with 99% reporting.

Q. Really?
JOHN ISNER: Yeah. And then something happened. My mom's calling foul play (laughter). I don't know. He went after it and he's ‑‑I don't think he's too disappointed. Obviously was just a primary.
I think it would have been very tough for him to win the seat against ‑‑I don't know who the Republican nominee is.

Q. Like a fifth‑set tiebreaker.
JOHN ISNER: Yeah, exactly. Kind of funny that another Isner goes down to the wire on something completely different than tennis.
I think he got a little taste of it. He said it was pretty stressful and he had some debates and whatnot, had to sharpen up his skills on what he knew and didn't know. It was fun for him.
My mom was his campaign manager. She's pretty political, too.

Q. You're less political now. You left the player council.
JOHN ISNER: Oh, yeah. I had had two years. It's like senators. There should be a term limit, right? (Laughter.) Some of these guys have been in there for 60 years, seems like.

Q. What did you make of your time?
JOHN ISNER: I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. We really do have an influence on decisions. Some things maybe you guys have never heard of, but the players do have a very strong voice on what goes on in our sport, so it was cool to be part of that.

Q. There has been a lot of talk about court selection and where players are placed. Venus was on an outer court. Any thoughts on that?
JOHN ISNER: Actually, I didn't know at all that there was an issue with that. I know Venus was playing on that court, but I didn't know ‑‑ maybe she said anything about it.
I haven't focused on that because I haven't been anywhere near to close to Centre Court. I was on court 8 my first match, and I'm not complaining about that. Maybe they have some beef, but to be honest, I'm not up to date on who has played where.

Q. Your dad, do you think he might try it again?
JOHN ISNER: No. I don't know. Maybe he would, though. I haven't spoken to him too much about it. He had fun with it. It was funny, he was in Paris watching me play, and it was pretty much during the campaign, I guess. He came to watch me play. One of his opponents was accusing him of hobnobbing with rich millionaires fundraising in Paris for the little 13th District of North Carolina. It was pretty funny. Political scene can be pretty dirty.

Q. Do you think you ever want to get in it?
JOHN ISNER: To be honest, I wouldn't want to rule it out. It's something that I wish ‑‑I think when I was 18, if I'm correct on this, I could have voted and I didn't, and I was very disappointed in myself. I wasn't into it. I think when I left college I started to get into politics. It's interesting. It's fun to watch and fun to get into debates every so often.
I wouldn't rule it out. Maybe I could win a seat somewhere in Athens, Georgia, and maybe being the mayor. That could be cool. I think it would be fun.

Q. (Question about running for mayor of Bucharest.)
JOHN ISNER: I did not know that. He did not win?

Q. He had some problems.
JOHN ISNER: There you go.

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