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BNP PARIBAS OPENMarch 11, 2014John IsnerINDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA J. ISNER/Y. Lu THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Someone tweeted that that was your second match, going back to Shanghai, where you didn't play a breaker. Clean and efficient, no? JOHN ISNER: Yeah, as I said on the court, I'm not known for matches that comprehensive. Yeah, very clean and, you know, it's good going forward. I think I played third from 11:00 tomorrow and certainly be able to come back from there. Been out there playing two‑and‑a‑half hours. It helps, for sure. It's nice to win like that. Q. Everything feeling good? JOHN ISNER: Uh‑huh. Q. You were being aggressive on the returns, forehand? JOHN ISNER: Yeah, everything feels good. More so than anything, I'm feeling pretty confident out there. I'm moving pretty well for me, which helps. Moving freely and not thinking too much. Everything feels good. Have a clear mind out there. Q. You started the match with an ace and finished it with an ace. Talk about your service. JOHN ISNER: That's my weapon. I'm sure I have done that a lot in my career, started with an ace, finished with an ace. I served well so far this week, and I'm going to have to continue to do so if I want to keep progressing in this tournament. Q. Saying that your serve is your weapon, we all know that, but can you get any better on your serve? JOHN ISNER: Yeah, I think I can. I feel like for the most part I'm pretty consistent on my serve, but sometimes I, you know, serve a little below par and sometimes I serve extremely well. You know, I think when I'm really feeling it and serving my best, I find it hard to get much better. But, you know, I don't know what my percentage was, but if I can keep is it in the high 60s and 70% first serves, somewhere around that, that means I'm serving well because I am not just spinning it in. I'm going for it. Q. How much of your time is devoted to your returns? Is it the majority of the time? JOHN ISNER: It's more than my serve. It's returns and off the back, you know, staying aggressive and playing on my front foot and just taking good cuts city ball. But I return my best when I'm most confident and not really thinking out there and just going for my shots. When I'm‑‑ you know, when I get a little mental and, you know, I start massaging the ball around not wanting to miss. I can't win like that, but that's certainly a factor with me. That's happened a lot with me before. So, you know, I can certainly ‑‑I feel like I can play better. I'm returning in the right direction I think. Q. Speaking of statistics, do you pay much attention to stats, your matches, percentages? Federer says he doesn't really look at it. A lot of sports are getting into analytics and video analysis, Dartfish and stuff like that. JOHN ISNER: No, I don't. Every other sport that I follow, I do. Q. Why is that? JOHN ISNER: I don't‑‑ when I leave here, I just want to not hear about tennis or think about tennis, so... (Smiling). Q. Do you just look for improving or... JOHN ISNER: That's something for my coach to do, and he does his... Q. So they pay attention to the stats. JOHN ISNER: Yeah, yeah, he puts his time in. He has people help him, as well. A guy like Jim Courier. You know, he's a guy I respect a lot. He can get in my ear a little bit in a good way and talk to Mike and Mike can relay things to me from Jim's perspective. So it's nice to have a guy like that on my side. All in all, I feel like I have a good team. Q. What do you think about the rest of the draw? Looks pretty good on paper. JOHN ISNER: I play Verdasco, I know that. If you know anything about him, he's capable of beating anyone. He will say this too. The last few years he's been probably a little bit inconsistent, but his talent is unquestioned, and he can knock the cover off the ball. He seems to be playing well here right now because he had a very good win here today. I have only played him once and that was like five years ago, so... Kind of odd. Haven't run into him too much. We played all the same tournaments. He's a lefty and he seems to‑‑ seems that he's playing well. And so am I, so it should be a good match. Q. Do you feel in the things you were doing out there tonight maybe you can make a big run here if you go deep? Are you feeling that kind of tennis? JOHN ISNER: No. I'm not thinking about that, really. It's cliché, but I'm just taking it each step at a time. I try not to get ahead of myself, but I know that I can. I can make a run at this tournament‑‑ at a tournament like this, I should say. I have done it before. You know, I did extremely well in Cincinnati. All the conditions and the surroundings suit me very well. So, you know, if there is a tournament for me to do well and play at, it would be a tournament like this. But I'm not looking ahead at all. Q. The dubs, has that been fun? JOHN ISNER: Yeah, it's a lot of fun. Quisner. We sucked last year, and the year before we were pretty good.  But we're starting to turn it back on, so it's a lot of fun playing with Sam. We played well too. Q. Does that help your singles or just a sideshow? JOHN ISNER: No, I think it does. You know, you get more looks at live balls. You can't replicate that in practice, so we can try. But it helps a lot. Q. Do you ever tell Sam to serve and volley? JOHN ISNER: You know, I don't really serve and volley like ‑‑if we would have served and volleyed here we would have lost, guaranteed. I mean, we are not the best volleyers, I should say. But Sam especially with his forehand, if he serves and stays back, he would rather hit a forehand than hit a volley and I would rather him hit a forehand than a valley. So we have actually done well playing that way, so we'll continue to do that. Q. Did you serve volley when you were in college in doubles most of the time? JOHN ISNER: Yeah, I feel like ‑‑ uh‑huh, but now these guys are so good they can get the return down. And myself, you know, and Sam digging out volleys isn't a way for us to win. We'd rather hit forehands because he's covering half the court I am covering half the court, so when he hits a serve he can play his forehand. Same as me. Q. Is that weird when you came on tour, that guys were not serving and volleying when they were playing doubles? JOHN ISNER: No. Sometimes it's fun when you play teams that don't serve and volley because it's like playing singles and it's really good practice. You get these long, extended rallies. I try to let Sam take most of those. Q. What do you do to get past the next round? JOHN ISNER: What do I need to do? You know, just serve well like I have so far. It's the same script for every one of my matches: Just take care of my serve. And if I can do that, I know I'm going to be in the match. And if I get a few chances outside of that, try to take them, but, you know, really focus in on my serve and just stay consistent and stay aggressive and try not to get too passive out there. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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