Confidence Served: Isner Ousts Cilic

American John Isner arrived at Crandon Park on a three-match losing streak, with just two wins on the season. But no matter what happens the rest of the tournament, the No. 14 seed will leave the site with a renewed sense of confidence —beating the World No. 3 can do that.

Isner did not face a break point in ousting second seed Marin Cilic 7-6(0), 6-3 in 87 minutes at the Miami Open presented by Itau Tuesday, his third win of this event alone.

It looked like the big server — Isner is now just 76 aces from becoming the fourth player in history to reach 10,000 — was on the verge of another disappointing loss in his opener against Jiri Vesely, as he lost the second set. But ever since, the World No. 17 has won five sets in a row to make his second Miami quarter-final. His best result at the event came three years ago when he advanced to the semi-finals before losing to eventual champion Novak Djokovic. 

Just 13 points went against serve in the first 12 games of the match, and the ensuing first-set tie-break would prove crucial. Isner, who had won just two of seven tie-breaks this year, posted a shutout and used that momentum to earn his best victory of the season, earning his third triumph in 10 tries in his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against Cilic.

The 32-year-old will next face an in-form Hyeon Chung, who defeated Portugal’s Joao Sousa 6-4, 6-3 in 68 minutes to reach his sixth quarter-final of the season and his second at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 level (also 2018 BNP Paribas Open).

 Watch Full Match Replays

Last November, Chung arrived at the Next Gen ATP Finals having not reached a tour-level quarter-final since August (Winston-Salem). But after leaving Milan as an undefeated champion, the South Korean has not looked back.

The 21-year-old is now 23-6 since arriving in Italy for that season-ending event, and he has not dropped serve in his 27 service games at Crandon Park. Only one player has won more matches than Chung in 2018 (18): Juan Martin del Potro (19), who is also in the Round of 16 in Florida.

Isner leads Chung 2-1 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, with two of those matches coming in the past year — the South Korean snuck past the veteran this year in Auckland while Isner won at the 2017 US Open.

Did You Know?
Isner was 2-5 in tie-breaks this season before shutting Cilic out in Tuesday’s first-set tie-break.