|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
U.S. OPENSeptember 1, 2007John IsnerNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Did you have a good time? JOHN ISNER: Yeah. It was amazing. That was up there with -- I mean, I played lot of good atmosphere this summer but that obviously by far was the most fun I've had playing a tennis match, it was amazing. Especially after winning the first set. The feeling of beating Roger Federer in a set, sitting down it was crazy. Q. When you won the first set, did you think you had a shot? JOHN ISNER: I did, then again I knew he was going step his game up. That's what he does every time he loses a set. He rarely loses two in a row. So I knew I had to somehow keep it up for two more sets and unfortunately I couldn't do it. Credit to him. He picked the his game up. Q. So you said this was up there; up there like North Carolina beats Duke up there? JOHN ISNER: I was going to -- Q. I mean like in your life, not just no tennis? JOHN ISNER: Yeah. And I've been to a lot of good Georgia football games. When we won the NCAAs in Athens that's college people were screaming during the point, really intoxicated out there in the crowd. Going insane. That obviously wasn't as much people. About 5,000, really packed in in Athens. That was a lot of fun. Probably tops that. Q. Are you at all disappointed in your play? You missed a couple net balls. JOHN ISNER: I through in some double faults for him to break me at 30-40 a couple times. I knew I had to go for my serves because I knew he was going hit one of those chip backhands at my feet. So I had to somehow hit a good serve. So I kind of went for a little bit more. That's what he does, forces you to go for a lot more. No, I mean I'm not disappointed the way I played. Maybe could have played better. That's what he does. Takes you out of your game. It was tough. Q. What do you take away from this match in terms of how far you've got to go? JOHN ISNER: Yeah. I take away a great deal from this match. Just to think that four months ago I was, underranked, well, and you know, go from that to beating Roger Federer in a set, it's pretty cool. I know that I can play with the top guys in this game, maybe not him for three or five sets, but one set I can play with him. I can hang with most guys I think and I take away -- this is a great experience for me. This whole summer has been. And hopefully I can continue to climb in the rankings and continue to pick up some good wins. Q. I'm sure Ricky prepped you on what to expect out there, but even with the preparation, were there things that you just couldn't get ready for? JOHN ISNER: Yeah, I mean, he just keeps you off guard the whole time. Almost like he holds the ball in his racquet until the last possible second and hits it wherever he wants to hit it. I had some success on my approach shots going up the middle, kind of cutting away the angles from him. In the first set I did. I kind of forced him into a couple errors when I would approach up the middle, hard up the middle and come in. We talked that a little. But obviously there's really not a game plan against him. Just got to go out there and hope you're playing out of your mind. Q. At any time in changeover did you find yourself staring over at Roger and saying, oh, my God, look where I'm at? JOHN ISNER: No. I didn't want to start staring him down. He'll probably stare me down right back. No, I never did that. But after I won the first set and the changeover just sitting down, the crowd going crazy, that was pretty neat. Something I'll always remember. Q. Did Roger say anything to you at the net or after the match or in the locker room? JOHN ISNER: Yeah. At the net he said, "Great job. Great summer so far. Good luck for the rest of the season." Q. What did you say to him? JOHN ISNER: I just told him it was an honor play against him on a stage like that. You know, to practice with him, is an honor. Q. You've obviously been watching him for a long time. I'm wondering, you know what to expect from him, but what does it feel like to feel his game; was there anything that surprised you about it? JOHN ISNER: Yeah, you watch it and it's pretty amazing on TV and it's even more amazing out there playing against him. Such great command of the ball. Knows what he's doing every point. When he makes a first serve, the thing hits the line 90% of the time it seems like. You're just off balance pretty much all the time against him. Yeah, he can just do whatever he wants to do with the ball. I expected that. I was up for the challenge today, but then again, not going to -- not often are you going beat a guy like that 3 out of 5 sets. Q. What did you think of his lob? JOHN ISNER: Yeah. I just stood there. Didn't move. Just watched it go by. I know he got a little chuckle out of that too. I hit some good serves after, I saved that game. Q. Has anyone every done that to you. JOHN ISNER: Yeah, it's happened before but the lob he hit... Q. How did you sleep last night? JOHN ISNER: Actually really well. The best I've slept since I've been here somehow. I don't know how. I slept like straight until 9:00 which is rare. I usually wake up at 8:00. That's what I do. But I slept straight to 9 o'clock. Q. Last time an athlete from Athens made the front page of the New York sports pages his name was Herschel; have you heard from him at all and is there more pressure building on you to perform even better? JOHN ISNER: No, I haven't heard from Herschel. I met him before but he's in a different league. He's like a legend down in Athens. Any time you win a Heisman Trophy and win a national championship it's going to get you -- yeah, I've done well so far and there's a lot of expectations. There's been a lot of expectation since the D.C. tournament. I think I performed well. A lot of pressure on me, a lot of things written about me. You know, where some people are saying I can make it far and some people saying it's a fluke. I don't believe it is. Definitely losing today is not bad, so. Q. You're so fresh on the pro tour. You know your volleying is going to get better, you know your groundstroking is going to get better. A year, year and a half from now, when those improvements are made, is it possible to project how much closer you might be to Federer then? JOHN ISNER: Yeah, definitely my game is going to improve. Any time I get to play against the top pros all year around, the game has to improve. I think it's improved tremendously since college because I've had a great experience playing against these guys. I've played a bunch of guys in the top 50, top 30. I've played two guys in the top 10 with Andy and obviously Roger. So the game's going to improve and I'm living, you know, down in Saddlebrook practicing with James and Mardy and a lot of other top pros there. Yeah, I look for my game to only get better from here. I don't really like to predict how far I'll get but I'll just practice hard and see what happens. Q. You said the pressure in college playing with a team for the national title was greater than with the pros; do you still feel that way? JOHN ISNER: I really do. When I lost in college I felt like I let my team down. It's something, it was a terrible feeling. I didn't lose much in the team format but when I did I felt terrible. You always want to get that point for the team. When I lose out here I'm only letting myself down. I think college tennis really has prepped me well for this because I don't feel as much pressure out here than I did playing college. Q. If someone came up to you this spring and said, "Hey, you're going make a run to the Washington final and meet Andy and then you're going make a run at US Open and meet Roger, going to be a heck of a lot hullabaloo," what would you say to them? JOHN ISNER: Tell them to get out of here. Never could imagine that. I was just hoping to improve my ranking so I could get into the Challenger level tournaments of the summer. But I don't know. It's been amazing thus far making the finals of Washington and the fashion I did winning all close matches and coming out here and beating two good opponents and losing to Roger. Never would have imagined it. Q. Why the surge, why so much success from where you were such a short time ago? JOHN ISNER: I think my first pro tournament out I won it, and then two tournaments later I won a challenger and then after that I played D.C. and made the finals. It's a confidence thing. I started beating the guys in the Top 200 and Top 150 and Top 100 and starting gaining confidence after each match. Even when I have lost this summer I've been able to take away positive from it. My confidence is at an all-time high right now. We'll see what tournaments I play in the future. I hope I continue to do well. Q. Will people be surprised at your progress and say, my God, you didn't win the NCAAs, how good was the guy that beat you? JOHN ISNER: He was good. I actually pretty well in the Finals. It was a really, really close match. He's a real tough player. I know he qualified for D.C., the tournament there. I think when he comes out and plays he's a Top 100 player for sure. I don't know. I've always thought college tennis has been very underrated. A lot of people underestimate the depth of college tennis. There are so many tough players in college. Really I think a couple guys playing college and that are going to come out next year and this guy can come out and have success like I do. Q. What's next for you? JOHN ISNER: I don't know. I'm going to sit down tomorrow actually with my coaches, Acuna and Coach Diaz, from school which I still love to talk to and see what input he has and see what's next. I know in two weeks I'm going to Davis Cup and practicing with those guys and try to get them ready for that big match. After that, I'll be traveling overseas to play tournaments. Q. Has practicing with the Davis Cup squad helped further your development? JOHN ISNER: Yeah, that's going to be awesome. I've practiced with James some; haven't practiced with Andy that much. It's going help my game out a lot. I've never done it before but I know a lot of young players that have and they said it's an awesome experience. You get ripped on a lot, you get hazed a little. I know I will, but it's going to be fun. It's going to be exciting just watching Andy and James and the Bryans get it done over there. Q. How can you compare the 23,000 at Ashe Stadium with the Georgia fans who are in your face for sure? JOHN ISNER: The Georgia tennis matches? Q. Yeah. JOHN ISNER: Georgia tennis matches, all 5,000 of them were cheering for me. Cheering for us. Talking a lot of crap to my opponents out there. Today everybody obviously had so much more respect for Roger and weren't saying anything bad for him. I think people always cheer for the underdog, and see what can happen. But it was amazing winning that first set in front of a packed house out there. It's right up there with winning NCAAs, I believe. Q. I would imagine you're a pretty big college football fan. Did you notice what Appalachian State did and did you sort of think, well, if they can do that to Michigan maybe I can pull it off? JOHN ISNER: Yeah, when I walked out on the court they were leading by 11 at halftime. I came off the court and I asked if they won that game. Sure enough they did. I'm from North Carolina. You go up to the big house and beat Michigan, it's amazing. I know they blocked a field goal at the end. I don't know, there's some hope for me going out there on the court. But, then again, not that much. I was playing Roger. Q. When you were in high school did you play any other sports or strictly tennis? JOHN ISNER: I quit basketball in 8th grade so I played strictly tennis. Q. Would you have become like the first basketball/tennis double-star? JOHN ISNER: Yeah. Q. John Lucas did? JOHN ISNER: Yeah, that's true. The schedules conflicted too much with each other. I couldn't do both because I would miss all the big junior tournaments and going there I would miss a lot of big basketball games, so I had to give one sport up. It was tough. Q. Forward or center? JOHN ISNER: More forward actually. Q. You weren't full grown in 8th grade? JOHN ISNER: No. I wasn't even close. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|