John Isner’s quest to re-enter the world’s top 10 gained momentum on Sunday after he won the Hall of Fame Open in Newport.
The American No.1 was playing in only his second tournament since returning to action following a foot injury. Taking on Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik in the final, Isner prevailed 7-6(2), 6-3, against the 22-year-old. Bublik serve for the opener after breaking for a 6-5 lead, before Isner broke back to draw level and then win the tiebreaker. Capitalizing on the errors of his opponent. Then in the second, Isner broke twice on route to victory.
The 34-year-old has won Newport for a record 4th time in his career. It is his second most successful tournament in terms of trophies won on the ATP Tour. The most is at the Atlanta Open, which takes place this week. Isner has won that tournament five times.
“It’s crazy. I remember when I first played here (in Newport) in 2007, my very first ATP tournament, I didn’t enjoy the courts that much, because I didn’t know how to play on these courts,” he told reporters following the final. “I wasn’t serving and volleying, I just wasn’t doing the right stuff, in my opinion, and to sit here now, to be able to say I’ve won this tournament four times is something I never thought would be possible.”
Isner has risen one place in the ATP rankings to 14th in the world. He dropped out of the top 10 back in May due to his injury-related hiatus from the tour.
Runner-up Bublik has risen 12 places to a ranking best of 72nd. Newport was his first ever final on the ATP Tour. He has now more than halved his ranking since the start of the year. In January his ranking was 165th. The Kazakh player has raised some criticism concerning his at times unorthodox play that features the use of the underarm serve.
“Guys chanting boos, they don’t understand what’s happening. Who cares?” he said. “We’re just entertaining the crowd, we played a great final.”
Elsewhere, Dusan Lajovic jumped 10 places to 26th after winning his first ATP title at the Croatian Open in Umag. The Serbian defeated Hungarian underdog Attila Balázs 7-5, 7-5, in the final of Sunday. Converting four out of his nine break point opportunities and winning 71% of the points behind his first serve.
“I have been coming to Umag for twelve years now, and I have competed in both junior tournaments and the ATP tournament seven or eight times. This is one of the best ATP Tour 250 tournaments and I could not be happier with the fact that I have claimed my very first title here,” said Lajovic.
Swedish Open finalist Nicolas Jarry is another player to have achieved a new ranking high. The Chilean has climbed 26 places to 38th in the world. Ensuring that there are two Chilean players in the top 40. Compatriot Christian Garin is one spot ahead in 37th. Jarry’s rise in the biggest in the top 100 this week.
Finally, the top 10 remains largely unchanged with Novak Djokovic leading with 12,415 points. 4460 more points than anybody else. The only swap in places was Fabio Fognini being overtaken into ninth place by Russia’s Daniil Medvedev. Fognini retired from his second round match in Umag last week.
