“You don’t want to get to a tie-breaker with John Isner” Mats Wilander calls the American a ‘legend’ after breaking all-time aces record
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John Isner and Mats Wilander
World No. 24 John Isner broke the record for most aces in tennis during his 3rd round defeat to Jannik Sinner in the 2022 Wimbledon Championships. Sinner won the match 6-4, 7-6(4), 6-3 to enter the fourth round and deny the American a chance at the Grand Slam title yet another time. Nevertheless, it was a historic match as Isner finally broke Ivo Karlovic‘s long-standing record of 13,728 aces.
Isner arrived at this year’s Wimbledon with 13,634 aces to his name and with Grass being a good surface for big servers, the American veteran made merry of it. He fired 54 aces in his first-round win against Enzo Couacaud, followed it up with 36 aces against Andy Murray and achieved the record against Sinner with 24 total aces in the match while Sinner could land only 2 aces over the course of the match. Isner now leads the Tour with 13,748 aces to his name.
“He absolutely rips the ball”: Mats Wilander on John Isner
Former World No. 1 and 7-time Grand Slam champion Mats Wilander was in awe of Isner after the American achieved the record. Wilander not only praised him for his serving skills but for his overall gameplay and deservingly called him a legend of the sport and one of the biggest reasons why the new tiebreaker rule is implemented in tennis.
“He’s got great hands. We always sort of say, for a big man, he’s got great hands and I can never figure out why big men and big women cannot have great hands. But, he’s using them more these days. He’s hitting slice backhands, he’s hitting a lot of drop shots, and he’s coming to the net. He absolutely rips the ball on the service return against his opponents’ second serve. But, he takes the racquet out of your hand, and I have to say, he’s a legend. He really is a legend.
“He’s obviously a legend here at Wimbledon because he played the longest match in the history of our sport, and he played that famous one against Kevin Anderson (2018 Wimbledon semi-final). Of course, because of those two matches, I believe we now have a tie-breaker [after 6-6 in the fifth set], first to ten points.
“But, more than that. He’s a legend because he can play so many close matches and he wins so many tie-breakers. I bet you he’s got the best tie-breaker record in the history of our sport – somebody at home maybe should check that out. But that’s what I feel like. You don’t want to get to a tie-breaker with John Isner,” said Wilander speaking on Eurosport.
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Sarthak Shitole
(3462 Articles Published)