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SONY OPEN TENNISMarch 22, 2014John IsnerMIAMI, FLORIDA J. ISNER/D. Young THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. So what did you think of your match? How do you feel you played? JOHN ISNER: I thought I played pretty well, actually. I had a few hiccups serving for the first set, and then I was up a break in the second set. Was able to, you know, win that set a little easier. Those are some things maybe I need to shore up a little bit. Credit to my opponent. I thought he played a couple of good games. When he gets the return back in play he's quick and crafty after that. He had some, you know, couple good return games against me, but all in all I'm happy with the win. Q. What kind of matchup is that for you? JOHN ISNER: Donald? Q. Yeah. JOHN ISNER: You know, it's tough. You know, he's a left so it's never easy. On top of that, he's just a good player. He's fast, and I had to hit a lot of extra balls today out there. Also, he's a good friend of mine, so it's tough to go against a friend of yours like that. Q. Seemed like your serve kept getting better. You obviously have a great serve. Just seemed to be getting better and better as the match went on. JOHN ISNER: Yeah, you know, a lot of times, you know, it comes down to a one‑set situation for the match and having my serve on my side, it helps. I'm a little bit tired out there, I guess. I also have a lot of adrenaline going through me, especially when I was up a break. So it was one of those things where I go out there and serve my hardest, serve my biggest, and win the match, you know, with a break advantage or whatnot. That's what I was able to do today. Q. You're ranked No. 10 in the world, easily the best ranking of the U.S. players by far. Can you sort of comment on the state of American tennis? JOHN ISNER: Yeah, no, it's ‑‑the state is not the greatest it's ever been. That's for sure. You know, we have seen times where you have, I don't know, three guys in the top 10, something like that. It's crazy. Or 10 guys in the top 50, so forth and so on. It's not like that right now. You know, I can't really say why. It's none of my concern really, you know, to really worry about the rest of those guys. So just focus on myself. Q. You've constantly moved up the rankings over the years. Do you have any goals set? JOHN ISNER: No, I don't really set too many performance goals for myself. I mean, I guess a goal of mine for me is just take care of myself the best as I possibly can during the course of a tournament. When I'm at home just doing all the right things. Because, you know, I have a shelf life as a professional tennis player. I want to do it as long as possible, so for me, the No. 1 key for me is taking care of my body, making sure I'm healthy. I'm very big, obviously, so I've got to take care of myself as well as I possibly can. So I feel like I do a very good job at that. When it comes to training, you know, like I said, I don't have performance goals, but it's just keep doing the right things on and off the court and let that play out as it is and see what happens. You know, I have had some good success over the last four or five years or so. Q. How is your bracket doing? JOHN ISNER: You know, it's all right. Better the first day than the second day. Q. It's been a tough year. JOHN ISNER: Yeah, very tough. Very tough. Q. Is there much interest among the players other than the Americans in this thing, or what's it like around... JOHN ISNER: Not so much. Q. They don't get it, huh? JOHN ISNER: I don't think many Europeans filled out ‑‑ Q. You're winning the bracket in the tennis world. JOHN ISNER: Yeah, there you go. There are a couple of Canadian guys. They follow it. Q. Do some of them kind of scratch their heads, what's this all about? JOHN ISNER: Yeah, I think the nonAmerican guys, they love the NBA actually, but they don't quite realize how big college sports are here in the States. They are big NBA fans, but college basketball they don't follow too much. Q. Which is harder to predict, basketball or tennis matches? JOHN ISNER: They're both hard. You'd think I look at a draw or for a match and I kind of tell myself, I think this guy will get through. But I'm wrong most of the time (smiling). You'd think I'd know of all people, but they're both very hard. Q. I think Warren Buffet would give a $1 billion anyone who can predict this tournament. JOHN ISNER: Yeah, smart business on him to get his name in. What's that run through Yahoo or whatever, the bracket thing? Never gonna happen. It's too hard. Q. Who did you follow growing up? You wanted to go into tennis? JOHN ISNER: No one, really. Q. No one? JOHN ISNER: Yeah, I didn't have many idols. I mean, I would watch tennis occasionally, but I'd focus on other sports on TV more than anything else. It's when I got to college that I became a pretty good tennis player. From there, I just decided to go pro. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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