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AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 24, 2010

John Isner

MELBOURNE, VICTORIA

A. MURRAY/J. Isner
7-6, 6-3, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What is it about Murray that makes him difficult?
JOHN ISNER: I knew going in that he can pretty much do a lot. He can play offense, he can play defense. That's what he does well: he mixes it up.
I think he did that today. You know, kind of wasn't hitting a real big ball out there. Kind of just dinking and dunking it around the court. And I felt like I wasn't able to, you know, get a good rip at the ball a lot of the time because of what he was doing with it.
Obviously, he returns well and he retrieves so well. Kind of broke me down.

Q. Is that something you have to be wary of, change your game? Do you have just one speed?
JOHN ISNER: Do I have one speed?

Q. Yes.
JOHN ISNER: Yeah, I like to attack. I'm not gonna do what he does out there, just kind of wait for the other guy to miss. That's not how I play. My game is to attack, come into the net. You know, although I didn't play badly, I felt like I could have played better today, given him a better run for his money.

Q. Do you think you came in enough?
JOHN ISNER: Probably not. I talked to my coach about that. But probably should have come in more and kind of forced the issue more.

Q. You had a set point in the first set. Didn't convert. Do you feel if one or two of those had gone your way, maybe it would be a different match?
JOHN ISNER: Uhm, yeah. That set point, I had a forehand that I wanted, and I went for it like I should, and I missed it, you know, pretty close. If you win that set, that's 7-5. It's a completely different match from that point on, even if he wins the second set. Even if he wins the next two sets after that, I'm still in it, whereas I wasn't. I was shaking his hand after three sets.
Uhm, I felt like my level, if I could have taken it to a fourth, you know, had I won that set, the fourth set, third, fourth sets I would have been playing better, but it wasn't to be.

Q. How did you feel physically out there?
JOHN ISNER: I felt all right. I was a little bit tired. Just comes with playing a lot of matches. But that didn't prevent me from -- that wasn't the reason why I lost.

Q. Looking forward, what do you take out of time over here?
JOHN ISNER: Yeah, I mean, this is a great start to the year. Obviously, I would have liked to have kept on going in this tournament, in the big one. But I won my first ATP tournament last week. To make the final 16 here, I won eight matches in a row at this level. It's a great accomplishment. I know that if I can continue that, this type of consistency, my ranking is going to continue to, you know, climb.
So I'm going to take away from this trip -- I'm going to be really confident going back home, where I like to play in the States, play a couple indoor tournaments. You know, there's probably about three, four tournaments back home in the States that I think I can do really well in.

Q. What about Wimbledon? Will the grass suit you?
JOHN ISNER: You know, I played in it two years ago. I didn't play it last year. I had trouble with it two years ago. Never in my life stepped foot on a grass court up until Wimbledon. That's still only one time.
But I have the right coach in my corner to learn how to play on grass. It's definitely a different game. It should suit me well, as long as I can grasp the concept of how to play on it.

Q. Your results are improving. You're playing the elite players more frequently. What do you feel like is still missing in your game to get to that level?
JOHN ISNER: I would have to say, like I know I can play with anybody. I can probably get a little bit fitter. I'm a lot fitter now than I was last year. And I'm gonna continue to work on that. I mean, just to see how kind of fit Andy Murray is, is kind of something to strive for.
I think for me actually, personally, a guy I kind of look up to is Andy Roddick, how fit he is, how hard he works. If he want to get up to his level, close to his level, I'm going to have to work as hard as he does. Those guys in the top five, six in the world are all so fit. Maybe that's what separates them.

Q. Do you have Davis Cup ambitions?
JOHN ISNER: If I'm selected to play, I'm going to go.

Q. You're probably playing your best ever tennis. That makes Andy's result even better that he managed to beat you in straight sets. Do you think you lost to the finalist or this year's champion?
JOHN ISNER: I don't want to make any predictions like that. I don't know what he said, or how he feels, but I feel like he played pretty well. Got to a lot of balls. That game he broke me in the third set was insane, the shots he hit there.
He's a good frontrunner, as well. To get down two sets to love is tough against him. My chance was that first set and I missed it. But, you know, he's definitely got a good shot to go all the way here.

Q. When we first ran into you, you were just out of college. You didn't really know where you fit in tennis, I guess. What's the difference now between that young John Isner and the professional tennis player now?
JOHN ISNER: Yeah, I mean, I was, you know, kind of living in my college days back then. I was riding high on confidence in 2007 after winning a lot in college. I did really well really early. Then I kind of regressed in 2008, which is not unusual. I kind of got ahead of my learning curve.
Now I'm more professional about things. I know that I can make a living, and make a really, really nice living playing tennis. So I'm going to work hard, as hard as I possibly can, and know that, you know, this is my career for the next 10 years. I'm not going to waste any opportunity.

Q. You had Steve Smith back today watching you and also you had T.O. Is that part of the same group?
JOHN ISNER: No, just Steve.

End of FastScripts

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