Isner Remains Flawless On Serve In Atlanta

Second seed John Isner improved to 25-4 at the BB&T Atlanta Open with a dominant 7-5, 6-4 quarter-final win on Friday over Lukas Lacko.

“I think most importantly, I’m at home in the United States and playing on my favorite surface. It’s one of the reasons I do well,” said Isner. “I don’t want to jinx it, but I’ve always played well here. I love this tournament and have fortunately been healthy enough to keep coming back here.”

Going back to his title win last week in Newport (d. Ebden), the American has held in 60 consecutive service games. He faced a break point at 3-4 in the opening set against Lacko, his first in 53 service games, but got out of trouble with a big serve. Isner captured the lone break in each set to advance in 73 minutes.

Isner has reached the semi-finals in Atlanta for all eight years of the tournament’s existence, and played in the final for six of the past seven years. He won the tournament in 2013-2015 and finished runner-up in 2010, 2011 and 2016.

Next up for Isner is third seed Gilles Muller, who comfortably dispatched qualifier and #NextGenATP American Tommy Paul 6-3, 6-1. Muller fired 16 aces and broke his opponent four times in the contest. The 34 year old, currently at a career-high Emirates ATP Ranking of No. 22, moves into his fifth ATP World Tour semi-final of the season.

Isner leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head with Muller 3-2, but Muller has won their past two matches. However, Isner has won both of their previous meetings in Atlanta, with the American scoring deciding-set wins in 2010 and 2011.

“It’s certainly going to be a heavyweight fight tomorrow,” said Isner. “I know he’s beaten me a few times and I’ve beaten him a few times. There’s usually a tie-break involved because of how we both serve. We’re both playing with a lot of confidence. It should be a very good tilt and I’m looking forward to it.”

Fourth seed Ryan Harrison ended the dream run of fellow American and college tennis star Christopher Eubanks with a 6-1, 6-2 victory. Eubanks, a rising senior at Georgia Tech, won his first two ATP World Tour main draw matches this week and clearly thrived on playing in his hometown. But he was no match for the more experienced Harrison, who didn’t face a break point and needed just 55 minutes to secure the win.

Awaiting Harrison in the semi-finals will be top seed Jack Sock or fifth seed Kyle Edmund. Harrison hasn’t played Edmund before, but is even with Sock in their FedEx ATP Head2Head at 1-1. Sock won their most recent match this past January in Auckland.