John Isner faced off against Sebastian Korda in his second match of 2021 hoping to avenge his loss that he suffered at the French Open last September. That didn’t happen as Korda pulled off a three set victory beating Isner 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
The first set started with both players doing a good job holding serve and right from the word play there were some intense long rallies. Korda was the first to earn a break point with a beautiful passing shot as Isner was attempting to come to the net which gave him two chances to break. The world number 25 had no issues saving both with two huge serves down the T.
The first time quarter-finalist didn’t give up and earned a third chance to break with another great passing shot and would break on the next point as the Greensboro, North Carolina native would send a volley into the net to give the young American a 4-3 lead.
He would hold serve and earn three set points on Isner serve and take the first set 6-3 thanks to another unforced error from the 6ft 11 American.
The beginning of the second set was pretty similar to the first with both players able to hold their opening service games until 3-3 but this time it was Isner with two chances to break off an unforced error from Korda.
Third time would be the charm for Isner who would break off an error from Korda to take a 4-3 lead. He would hold serve and serve out the set to take it 6-4 to set up a deciding third set.
The third set was probably the tightest set with both players not giving an inch and a crucial break point didn’t occur until 4-3 when Korda would get the crucial break with a stunning passing shot to take a 5-3 lead and serve for the match.
Isner pushing to stay in the match won three points in a row to set up three break points to try and go back on serve. Korda would save all three and eventually reach match point which he would eventually serve out with a perfect placed ace.
“I think towards the end, I mean, I had one loose game kind of stopped swinging on the ball and kind of just got away from me a couple times. But kind of just sticking with my plan and always, and always making a play even on every single serve. I mean, I think the big key for me was I changed up my court positioning on a serve halfway through the third side, and I had a couple more a couple better looks on his serve. So I think that was the biggest key for me tonight“.
After the match Isner confirmed he would not be heading over to Australia for the Open citing family reasons.
““I’m not going this year, he said “ I’m staying home”.
He went on to explain his reasoning why he decided to skip the first grand slam of the year stating he would spend some quality time with his family.
“At this stage in my career and in my life, I’ve always had visions of being able to travel with my family, and of course that is not the case, that wouldn’t be the case for Australia this year – understandably so, I get it,”
He added to his reasoning and explained his vision for always travelling with his family.
“It really was just a situation where I didn’t want to be away from my family for that long, so I decided to stay home.”
Isner added it was not an easy call to make and the decision was made actually almost 24 hours prior to his match against Korda.
“The whole tour is going to be in Australia for five weeks, “I have a super long break right now, that’s for sure, but I made this decision last night. It wasn’t an easy decision at all, it wasn’t. I thought long and hard about it, but I feel comfortable with my decision right now and I am looking forward to getting home”.
Korda will face Cameron Norrie who beat Francis Tiafoe 6-0, 3-6, and 6-4 while in the other matches of the day Hubert Hurkacz beat Roberto Quiroz who was coming off a big win vs Ivo Karlovic in the previous round.
He will face Christian Harrison who ended Gianluca Mager run by beating him 7-6, 6-4.
