ROLAND GARROS

June 2, 2021

John Isner

Press Conference

J. ISNER/F. Krajinovic

7-6, 6-1, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. I need to ask you a question about players and Grand Slam tennis in Week 1. Is it a tougher week than Week 2 for guys like you who usually make it into Week 2? How is the pressure in Week 1 as opposed to that in Week 2 basically?

JOHN ISNER: That's a good question. I don't normally make it into Week 2. That's just the facts. But there is a lot of pressure early on in the event, especially in a first round. There is a lot of butterflies because everyone is so good, and it's very easy to come out in a first round and play a tentative match. Lord knows I have done that before, and I'm sure a lot of high-ranked players have done that, because just like anything, you want to try to get that first win under your belt and then maybe you can be off and running from there.

I think the pressure, in my experience, is quite big in the first week. Now, if you ask Rafa that question or Roger, they'll say the second week because that's what they are accustomed to. For me, there definitely is a lot of pressure in the first week.

I have been seeded at Grand Slams for probably more than a decade now, and so there is always a little bit of pressure for me at least to, I guess, you know, live up to my seed or maybe go into the second week. So for me, early on can be tricky.

Q. You had a good run in Madrid to set up some momentum here. I wonder where do you think that's crystallizing from? It seems like you're in good shape and feeling pretty good out there. What was the genesis of that?

JOHN ISNER: No, I do. It's the mentality. You know, I haven't played a lot this year, but I'm not worried about the fact that I haven't played a lot. This is only my, I think, my fifth tournament all year long.

So at this stage of my career, I'm not trying to prove anything to anyone. I just want to go out and play free and try to play loose and be happy with the result either way. That's what I have done very, very well this year.

The times that I have lost this year I have been happy. I have been fine. I slept fine that night, and that's the mentality I'm taking.

If I lose here, I'm on a plane the next day and I go home and I see my wife and my kids. It's all good from there.

I know that after this tournament I have another break before Wimbledon. I'm playing a very limited schedule, and I'm just enjoying the times that I am on the court. I think I have been playing well because of that because I have been playing pretty pressure-free.

Q. I wanted to ask you about the way the weather affects serving. I'll hear people say, Well, it's a sunny day. That's great for John Isner. On one hand, I guess I understand that. On another, I sort of feel that John Isner is going to have a good serving day no matter what the weather is like. For you, is there a difference in that way? If so, how do you think it affects you?

JOHN ISNER: Yeah. No, there is. I definitely prefer serving in hot conditions. You know, you look at a tournament like Indian Wells and Miami, generally pretty hot, generally pretty sunny. The ball is bouncing very, very high.

Most times here at the French Open, these are incredible serving conditions for me. I don't think people realize how good of a surface clay can be for a guy like myself, especially if the weather for myself is cooperating. If it's 75, 80 degrees and sunny, the ball is bouncing really high and the court is playing pretty fast. It's very, very good conditions for me.

You know, when I played this event in September of last year, if you guys remember, the weather was pretty crappy. It was overcast and it was drizzling rain. The match that I lost against Korda, I was having a really hard time getting the ball up on him. He beat me because of that. That was one of the reasons he beat me, at least.

These conditions out here are really tailor-made for me, I believe. I've played six sets and held serve all six sets, and I hope in a couple days' time it's going to be hot just like it was today.

Q. A lot of Americans of course are just kind of hoping for a breakthrough. What I wanted to do is just take a minute and just throw out three or four names of your contemporaries and just talk about their upside, their chances of breaking through, what you like about their game just in a sound bite. Let's start with Reilly. He's been playing well, good season. Just talk about his game now.

JOHN ISNER: Well, yeah. I mean, of course there are a lot of similarities between Reilly and myself. Reilly is, for as big as he is, is an incredible mover. He's very, very fast. He's got that going for him.

He's still very young. So I think very highly of Reilly. I think the number one thing he needs to work on, he will probably say the same, is his mental game. I mean, he's in a good mental space right now, I believe, because he's playing well coming off the semifinal in Rome. He's got a bit of confidence. But there have been some times when he can get down on himself and can certainly beat himself on the tennis court.

Once he matures, he's going to get a lot better in that regard. He's going to be a force no matter who he's playing, no matter what tournament he's at. He's going to be a handful against everyone.

Q. Taylor Fritz has shown a willingness to go out there and try and prove himself on clay. He has a lot of weaponry. Talk about his game in a nutshell.

JOHN ISNER: Yeah. Well, Taylor, I really do think Taylor is a maximizer. He works hard. Off the court he's kind of goofy. He's a lot of fun to hang out with. But when he laces the shoots up, he competes his ass off. It's very admirable.

He definitely believes he's going to win every single match and every single point that he plays. He goes out there, and no matter what the score is he's going to compete. He does a great job there. He has a lot of weapons, incredible backhand, good serve, good return. But I think the number one thing he has going for him is the way he competes.

Q. I know you don't spend probably much time generally watching Tennis Channel, but I have been curious to see a lot more integration they have had in their programming lately of the gambling side of things, DraftKings sponsorship, very prominent on their broadcasts. I'm curious what you make of that as a tennis player, as a general sports fan, and knowing the sort of relationship that tennis players have had with the gambling side of things.

JOHN ISNER: No, look, I think to my estimation, most of the issues tennis has had has been in the lower-circuit events, whether that's futures or challengers, but I think it's way past time that tennis at the biggest stages, here at the Grand Slam and Tennis Channel, that they embrace the gambling side of things.

It's very popular. It just is what it is. It can be a revenue stream I think for the tournaments, for the players. In my opinion, there is not much, you know, match fixing go on, ATP and WTA Tour, and there is not much of that going on at the Grand Slams, so I think it's very cool.

I think the fact that DraftKings is featured prominently on the Tennis Channel desk is something that, as I said, it's way past due in my opinion, and hopefully they can continue a partnership for many years to come, because DraftKings is an incredibly popular app back home in America. So many people use it. Daily fantasy sports, it's fantastic. Those people are on top of their game, and the fact they want to partner up with tennis is pretty huge.

Q. I wanted to ask a Wimbledon-related question and ask you if you can take your mind back to April of last year, if you recall hearing the announcement that it would be canceled and what your reaction was to that and what your sort of expectations and thoughts are about getting back there after this unusual two-year gap between the tournaments.

JOHN ISNER: Yeah. Well, I think at that point I wasn't surprised because April of last year we missed Indian Wells, we missed Miami, the clay court Masters events were canceled, and we weren't playing anything in April.

I wasn't surprised to hear that Wimbledon canceled. The virus at that point was, you know, spreading quite rapidly over there in London. And the fact that they had a little pandemic insurance they could fall back on made it a pretty, I guess, easy decision for them. Can't fault them at all for that. Incredible foresight on their part to cash in on that.

Definitely looking forward to Wimbledon this year. It's going to be an incredible event. You know, a lot of people say it's the Mecca of our sport. It's our Augusta National with how green it is, how much that tournament has.

Everyone will be looking forward to get back there. There are so many incredible storylines right now with tennis too, because you have arguably the greatest players ever maybe getting towards the end of their career on the men's, on the women's side, talking about Roger, Rafa, of course Serena. So there is a lot of incredible storylines going into Wimbledon this year. It's going to be great to have it back. I think the fans all over the world are going to be eager to watch it.