John Isner did not lose a set during two of his three Newport title runs. And although he dropped a set in his second-round match on Wednesday, the American advanced to the quarter-finals of the Hall of Fame Open with a 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3 victory against Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak.

“It wasn’t easy, I played a long match, two hours and eight minutes. The conditions were brutal. It’s windy and like 90 per cent humidity, so it was tough conditions out there,” Isner said. “But I’m happy to claw through there because it wasn’t pretty at times, that’s for sure.”

Isner, competing in his second tournament since breaking his left foot in the Miami Open presented by Itau final against Roger Federer, is pursuing his first ATP Tour trophy of the season. The 34-year-old has claimed at least two titles in six of the past eight years, and he is looking to build his way into form after reaching the second round at Wimbledon, where he made his return to action.

Although the wind and humidity did not make it easy for Isner, he struck 25 aces and saved all five break points he faced. The World No. 15 also was happy to spend all the time he did on court, to continue to get match play as he recovers from his foot injury.

“I think it’s very good for me. I don’t play tomorrow, so to play two hours in conditions like that and humidity like that, it’s good for sure,” Isner said.

Isner will next face Aussie Matthew Ebden in a rematch of the 2017 Newport final, won by the American. Isner leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against the World No. 110 4-1. Ebden defeated Denis Kudla 6-2, 6-2 in the second round.

Although Isner moved on, the second and third seeds were ousted in Rhode Island. American Tennys Sandgren dismissed second seed Adrian Mannarino 6-4, 6-1 in just 73 minutes, and Spaniard Marcel Granollers beat third seed Jordan Thompson 6-2, 7-6(6) in 88 minutes.

^{Photo Credit: Dino E. Garcia}
In the quarter-finals, Sandgren, who made the fourth round at Wimbledon, will face seventh seed Alexander Bublik in a rematch of a first-round match in Miami from earlier this year, won by the Kazakh. Bublik defeated qualifier Viktor Troicki 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Granollers will play German Mischa Zverev, who moved past Argentine Guido Andreozzi 6-4, 6-4. Zverev was 1-11 at tour-level on the season entering this week.

In other action, fourth seed Ugo Humbert, a #NextGenATP Frenchman, beat 2018 finalist Ramkumar Ramanathan 7-6 (5), 6-0. He will next play Ilya Ivashka of Belarus, who advanced past American Christopher Eubanks 6-4, 6-3.

Third seed Laslo Djere beat 2017 finalist Paolo Lorenzi 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to begin his Plava Laguna Croatia Open Umag on Wednesday.

The Serbian is on the hunt for his second clay-court title of the season after triumphing for the first time in his seven-year career in February, when he beat #NextGenATP Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime to win the Rio Open presented by Claro, an ATP 500 event.

Djere trailed 0-2 in the third set, but won five games in a row to take a commanding lead and put himself in position to close. The 37-year-old Lorenzi, who won an ATP Tour title on clay in 2016, did not go away though, getting back on serve when the Serbian served for the match. Djere bounced right back though, breaking the Italian for the fifth time in the match to triumph after two hours and 43 minutes.

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The 24-year-old Djere will next face eighth seed Leonardo Mayer of Argentina. Mayer saved six of eight break points to fight past Czech Jiri Vesely 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. Hungarian qualifier Attila Balazs, 30, squeaked past sixth seed Filip Krajinovic 6-3, 6-7(1), 7-6(5) to make his second tour-level quarter-final.

The 30-year-old qualified and reached the Hungarian Open quarter-finals (l. to Herbert) in April. Balazs retired in August 2014 and started coaching tennis, but felt bored and came back to professional tennis.

He will next meet Italian Stefano Travaglia, who advanced 6-1, 2-1 when top seed Fabio Fognini retired from their second-round match.

Did You Know?
In his victory against Lorenzi, Djere saved 16 of the 20 break points he faced, including nine of 10 in the second set, which he lost.

Doubles Results
Leonardo Mayer/Andres Molteni def. Fabricio Neis/Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 6-4, 6-1
Tomislav Brkic/Ante Pavic def. Hans Podlipnik-Castillo/Tristan-Samuel Weissborn 6-2, 6-2
Denys Molchanov/Igor Zelenay def. Pablo Andujar/Gerard Granollers 6-2, 6-2
Robin Haase/Philipp Oswald def. Andrey Rublev/Andrei Vasilevski 4-6, 7-5, 16-14

Get your first serve in.

It’s an age-old tennis adage that forms the engine room for career-best performances from several players on Tour so far in 2019. An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of first-serve percentage and career-best ATP Rankings uncovers a striking correlation between the two.

Dusan Lajovic leads the Tour in first-serve percentage in 2019, coming into Wimbledon, making 68.01 per cent of his first serves in 26 matches. The 29-year-old Serbian achieved a career-high ATP Ranking of No. 23 in April on the back of reaching his first ATP Masters 1000 final at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.

Guido Pella is second on the list for first serves made in 2019, making 67.16 per cent. The Argentine reached a career-high ranking of No. 21 in May. Pella won the Brasil Open that month, making an impressive 69 per cent (166/241) of first serves to take the title. He also reached the final of the inaugural Cordoba Open in February.

Aussie Jordan Thompson is ranked fifth in first-serve percentage so far in 2019, making 67.01 per cent of first serves through 34 matches. He reached a career-high of No. 43 this month after reaching the final of the Libema Open on grass in June.

Felix Auger-Aliassime, the 18-year-old Canadian sensation, is 10^th on the list of first serves made at 65.66 per cent from 38 matches. He boasts a career-high ATP Ranking of No. 21.

In May and June, the #NextGenATP star reached the final in Lyon on clay, the final in Stuttgart on grass and the semi-finals of the Fever Tree Championships in London leading into Wimbledon.

Auger-Aliassime: First Serves Made
Lyon = 69% (201/306)
Stuttgart = 65% (203/310)
Fever-Tree Championships = 64% (208/327)

The Top 10 list of first serves made also features other in-form and highly-ranked players:

Top 10: First Serves Made (January to Wimbledon)
Dusan Lajovic = 68.01%
Guido Pella = 67.16%
Dominic Thiem = 67.16%
Rafael Nadal = 67.13%
Jordan Thompson = 67.01%
Novak Djokovic = 66.42%
Alexander Zverev = 66.04%
Roberto Bautista Agut = 65.95%
Diego Schwartzman = 65.88%
Felix Auger-Aliassime = 65.66%

Four players from the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings appear in the Top 10 list of first serves made in 2019, including No. 1 Novak Djokovic and No. 2 Rafael Nadal, No. 4 Dominic Thiem and No. 5 Alexander Zverev.

The Top 10 list for first serves made is heavily populated with players from the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings and others enjoying the best seasons of their careers. It remains a statistical category that directly correlates to success in our sport.

Albert Ramos-Vinolas won a repeat of the 2016 Swedish Open final on Wednesday by defeating second seed and fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 6-2, 6-4 in one hour and 46 minutes for a place in the quarter-finals.

Verdasco, who also finished as runner-up in 2013, had won two of their previous three meetings at the ATP Tour 250 clay-court tournament in 2014 and 2017. World No. 99 Ramos-Vinolas saved eight of nine break points he faced against Verdasco, who broke serve for the first time at 2-5 in the second set. Now with a 12-5 record in Båstad, Ramos-Vinolas next faces countryman Roberto Carballes Baena, who overcame Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia and Herzegovina 6-1, 7-6(4) in the final match of the day.

France’s Jeremy Chardy hit 12 aces and worked hard to beat top seed Cristian Garin of Chile 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 35 minutes. Garin, this year’s Houston and Munich titlist, led 3-0 in the second set.

The World No. 80 will next play Garin’s compatriot fifth seed Nicolas Jarry, who won 12 of the first 17 points en route to knock out Swedish wild card Mikael Ymer 7-5, 6-3 in one hour and 45 minutes. Chardy beat this season’s Geneva runner-up Jarry 6-7(1), 6-2, 7-6(5) in March at the Miami Open presented by Itau.

1. Colombian Power
Over the past three months lifelong friends Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah have worked hard on their ascent to the summit of the ATP Doubles Rankings, setting the pace on the doubles circuit by compiling a 24-4 team record in that period to become joint No. 1s for the first time (week beginning 15 July).

The Colombians, who have known each other for almost 30 years, have captured four tour-level trophies in 2019, culminating in a four-hour, 57-minute thriller over Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin at The Championships, Wimbledon, that marked their first Grand Slam men’s doubles championship crown.

Five years on from lifting their first trophy in Rio de Janeiro, Cabal and Farah have compiled a 15-16 record in finals, which includes successes over the past few months at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell (d. Murray/Soares), their second consecutive Internazionali BNL d’Italia title (d. Klaasen/Venus) and at the Nature Valley International (d. Gonzalez/Zeballos) that set up their run at the All England Club.

2. Mike’s 500 Weeks At No. 1
Mike Bryan, synonymous with spectacular returning, volleying and his record-breaking partnership with twin brother, Bob Bryan, celebrated his 500th week at No. 1 in the ATP Doubles Rankings on 26 May 2019.

“It seems like yesterday that we won Roland Garros [in 2003] and reached No. 1,” Mike Bryan told ATPTour.com. “It’s a dream to hit No. 1, but to be No. 1 for so long I owe it to this guy. We’ve been pushing each other and never really taken the foot off the gas as long as we’ve been playing. We’ve always reached for more and never been satisfied when we’ve won a tournament and set our sights on the next one. There has been sacrifice, but we love what we do.”

The feat came 15 years after he first reached the summit of the team game on 8 September 2003; and 46 weeks since returning to No. 1 for his 13th stint on 16 July 2018 – the first time since 25 October 2013. Mike Bryan continues to compete with the same passion, energy and dedication, with a record 1,129 tour-level match wins and 123 titles.

Read Tribute: Mike Celebrates 500th Week at No. 1

3. ATP Challenger Tour Stars To Grand Slam Champions
Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies have enjoyed an unprecedented rise since first joining forces in April 2018, initially plying their trade on the ATP Challenger Tour, to their first ATP Tour crown, and the biggest moment of their career at Roland Garros last month.

With ATP Challenger Tour titles in Rome, Almaty, Genova, Sibiu and Eckental on their mantle-pieces in 2018, the Germans were well-travelled before they captured their first ATP Tour crown in February this year at the New York Open, where they didn’t drop a set all week. But it wasn’t until they dipped back to the second tier, with two further crowns in Marbella and Heilbronn, that they made their Top 50 breakthroughs ahead of their debuts at the clay-court major championship in Paris.

The pair will now attempt to build on its breakthrough in order to qualify for the eight-team Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 10-17 November.

Read Feature: The Meteoric Rise Of Mies & Krawietz 

4. Andy Murray Makes Welcome & Dramatic Return At The Queen’s Club
Five months on from undergoing right hip surgery, Andy Murray made a welcome return to the ATP Tour in June – not on the singles court, but in tandem with Feliciano Lopez at the Fever-Tree Championships. Having saved two set points in the opening set, the pair clinched the title with a 7-6(6), 5-7, 10-5 win over Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury.

It was Murray’s first ATP Tour doubles title since prevailing with his brother, Jamie Murray, at the 2011 Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo (d. Cermak/Polasek), and gave him a confidence boost for his chances of returning to singles competition, potentially later in 2019. “I felt relaxed at the beginning of the week, but felt more nervous as it went on. I think my competitive instincts started kicking in,” said Murray. “My hip has felt great, pain-free. I’ll try to keep progressing, but I am just happy to be back on the court.”

Lopez, who defeated Gilles Simon earlier in the day to clinch The Queen’s Club singles crown, was the first player since Matteo Berrettini (2018 Gstaad) to win singles and doubles titles at the same event. The Spaniard was also the first man since Mark Philippoussis (1997) to win both titles in the same year at The Queen’s Club.

5. ATP Doubles Race To London Shaping Up
A little more than three months ago, Cabal and Farah could be found in 13th position on 690 points in the ATP Doubles Race To London, but today lead the quest for a spot at the Nitto ATP Finals in November on 5,250 points. The Colombians lead the second-placed Bryan twins (2,690) by 2,560 points and are already in strong contention to finish 2019 as the year-end No. 1 team (having finished second behind Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic in 2018). The Bryans have clinched two ATP Tour titles this year: their fifth Delray Beach Open by VITACOST.com (d. Skupski/Skupski) and their sixth Miami Open presented by Itau (d. Koolhof/Tsitsipas).

Third-placed Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo, the 2017 finalists at the season finale, trail the Americans by only 35 points, while 2015 Nitto ATP Finals titlists Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau (sixth), this season’s Mutua Madrid Open champions, and 2016/17 winners Henri Kontinen and John Peers (seventh) are separated by just 10 points with less than four months to go until the event at The O2 in London from 10-17 November.

View ATP Doubles Race To London

American Christopher Eubanks knocked out defending champion Steve Johnson 7-6(9), 7-6(5) at the Hall of Fame Open in Newport on Tuesday. The 23-year-old wild card, No 188 in the ATP Rankings, hit 15 aces and was clutch in the tie-breaks to earn one of the biggest wins of his ATP Tour career.

“I think I served extremely well, especially in the times I needed to,” said Eubanks. “I started off being down a break and then I really found a good rhythm, so the serve definitely propelled me to victory today.

“Anytime you get a win at tour-level, you’ve got to come out here and play really well. Especially [winning] in the U.S. it’s always super special, so it feels really good. I’m really excited.”

Eubanks, who improved to 2-3 at tour-level on the season, will next meet Ilya Ivashka of Belarus.

American Denis Kudla, who lost to Novak Djokovic in the second round of Wimbledon, squeaked past eighth seed Bradley Klahn 6-4, 7-6(5). Kudla will next face 2017 finalist (l. to Isner) Matthew Ebden of Australia. Ebden overcame a mid-match dip against New York Open finalist Brayden Schnur of Canada to advance 6-1, 2-6, 6-3.

Indian qualifier Ramkumar Ramanathan, the 2018 finalist (l. to Johnson), beat Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky 5-7, 7-6(6), 6-2 and will face fourth seed Ugo Humbert of France in the second round. Humbert posted his best Grand Slam result yet at Wimbledon, making the fourth round before losing to eventual champion Djokovic.

Seventh seed Alexander Bublik edged Australian qualifier Alex Bolt 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(5) in one hour and 59 minutes, and next meets another qualifier, Viktor Troicki, a 3-6, 7-5, 7-5 winner over Jason Jung. In the final match of the day, German veteran Mischa Zverev beat American qualifier Tim Smyczek 6-4, 7-6(4) to setup a second-round meeting against Argentine Guido Andreozzi, who beat 2016 champion Ivo Karlovic on Monday.

Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal returning to their very best tennis, along with Roger Federer making more history, highlighted the second quarter of the 2019 season on the ATP Tour.

Djokovic capped off another relentless fortnight by winning his fifth Wimbledon title on Sunday, beating Roger Federer 13-12(3) in the first fifth-set tie-break in Wimbledon singles history.

Nadal made the semi-finals at SW19 (l. to Federer), but the Spaniard, per usual, ruled the main European clay-court swing despite a slow start on the surface.

Nadal didn’t win his first title of the season until 19 May, the longest it’s taken him since 2004, when he won his maiden tour-level title. But the Spaniard made up for the missed opportunities, beating Djokovic for the Internazionali BNL d’Italia title in Rome for his record-setting 34^th ATP Masters 1000 title and then running away with his 12^thRoland Garros title against Dominic Thiem.

Nadal had to withdraw from his BNP Paribas Open semi-final against Roger Federer in March (knee) and missed the Miami Open presented by Itau later that month.

“Too many issues the last 18 months. So that makes these last few weeks very, very special,” Nadal said after winning in Paris.

Djokovic also had a less-than-Novak like finish to the first quarter of the season, failing to reach the quarter-finals at either March Masters event.

But the Serbian recovered well, winning the Mutua Madrid Open title (d. Tsitsipas) for his 33^rd Masters 1000 title. Djokovic then reached the Rome final and Roland Garros semi-finals before hoisting his 16^th Grand Slam title at the All England Club.

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The World No. 1 dominated the tie-breaks in the Wimbledon final against Federer, 7-6(5), 1-6, 7-6(4), 4-6, 13-12(3).

“It was probably the most demanding, mentally most demanding, match I was ever part of. I had the most physically demanding match against Nadal in the [2012] final of Australia that went almost six hours. But mentally this was a different level, because of everything,” Djokovic said.

Federer won his 10^thNOVENTI OPEN title in Halle, the first time the Swiss has entered double-digit titles at a tournament. At SW19, the 37-year-old made his 31^st Grand Slam final (20-11) and had two match points to become the oldest Grand Slam champion in the Open Era. Instead, Federer fell to Djokovic for the 26^th time in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series (22-26).

“I just feel like it’s such an incredible opportunity missed, I can’t believe it,” Federer said.

On clay, Federer returned for the first time since 2016, making the quarter-finals in Rome and Madrid and the semi-finals at Roland Garros.

Representing the #NextGenATP, Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas won his first clay-court title at the Millennium Estoril Open and reached his second Masters 1000 final (Toronto) in Madrid.

Austrian Dominic Thiem, No. 4 in the ATP Rankings, also compiled another strong clay-court swing, beating Nadal en route to the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell title (d. Medvedev), making the semi-finals in Madrid (l. to Djokovic) and reaching his second consecutive Roland Garros final (l. to Nadal). And No. 6 Alexander Zverev won his first title of the year in Geneva and reached his second Grand Slam quarter-final in Paris.

Other highlights of the second quarter included Italy’s Fabio Fognini breaking into the Top 10 and winning his first Masters 1000 title at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters; Russians Karen Khachanov and Daniil Medvedev also joined the elite group for the first time; and four players won their first tour-level title: Chilean Cristian Garin (Houston, Munich), Adrian Mannarino of France (‘s-Hertogenbosch), Lorenzo Sonego of Italy (Antalya) and American Taylor Fritz, who made the 2018 Next Gen ATP Finals (Eastbourne).

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John Isner has picked nearly the perfect spot to continue his comeback from a foot injury. The 34-year-old American accepted a wild card into the one of his favourite tournaments, the Hall of Fame Open in Newport, and is the top seed at the ATP 250 event, which Isner has won three times.

He’s been more successful at only one other tournament, his home BB&T Atlanta Open, which Isner has won five times. The 6’10” American played collegiate tennis at the University of Georgia, only 116 kilometers away from Atlanta.

“I’ve had a lot of success [in Newport]. When I first started playing this tournament early on in my career, I didn’t have much success and I was struggling with the courts. But I finally I think learned how to play on these courts and since then I’ve always done pretty well here,” Isner said.

The right-hander lost his opening match the first two times he played on the Newport grass (2007-08). But he learned quickly, winning back-to-back titles in his next two appearances (2011-12) and in 2017. Since 2008, Isner has failed to reach the quarter-finals only once, in 2015, when he lost to eventual champion Rajeev Ram of the U.S.

“Certainly I really enjoy playing here,” Isner said. “This place is so historic and this tournament has been here for so long. It’s been so successful for so long.”

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Isner broke his left foot in the Miami Open presented by Itau final against Roger Federer and missed all of April, May and June. He returned earlier this month at Wimbledon, where the 2018 semi-finalist made the second round (l. to Kukushkin). But Isner isn’t worried about transitioning from the SW19 lawns to Newport.

“I don’t think it’s that big of a change coming from Wimbledon. Of course the grass isn’t completely the same but it feels the same underneath your feet. Maybe the bounces are a little bit different but going from Wimbledon to here it’s, in my opinion, it’s pretty easy,” he said.

Because of the time away, Isner has dropped in the ATP Rankings to No. 15, his lowest spot since 19 March 2018. The 14-time ATP Tour titlist spent much of his time away resting, which was a change from his usual rehab from injuries.

“I hurt my bone and as anyone will tell you, bone is bone. Of course you can take some more vitamin D and try to do everything you can, but you just have to stay off of it. That’s been the most difficult thing for me because… anytime I’ve had anything hurt I’ve been able to actively rehab it. This, you really can’t do that that much; you have to just let your body heal itself,” he said.

“I was pretty motionless for a long time. I don’t think I hit a ball for 10 weeks, so I didn’t start practising until a week before Wimbledon. It’s tough but I wasn’t dwelling on it by any means. I’ve been very fortunate to be healthy. Injuries are a part of all sports, and tennis is no different, so I just… enjoyed my time at home.”

He couldn’t compete on the ATP Tour, but Isner did gain plenty of quality time with his wife, Madison, and their 10-month-old girl, Hunter Grace.

“It’s not that we wouldn’t have had that time, I think they would have travelled during the clay-court season. It’s just waking up in the morning and being with my daughter for a few hours as opposed to 30 minutes as I’m getting ready for practice and going about my day,” Isner said last month. “It’s very, very special for sure. She’s in her formative years, and it’s just been great.”

Andrey Rublev opened his bid to reclaim the Plava Laguna Croatia Open Umag title on Tuesday, cruising into the second round with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Robin Haase. The 21-year-old Russian improved to 4-1 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, with his lone loss to the Dutchman coming in last year’s Umag quarter-finals.

Rublev, a two-time Next Gen ATP Finals qualifier, won his maiden ATP Tour title here in 2017 as a lucky loser. He will look to reach his first quarter-final since February in Marseille when he next meets No. 4 seed Dusan Lajovic, the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters finalist (l. to Fognini).

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Italian Paolo Lorenzi, the 2017 finalist, battled for a place in the second round. The 37-year-old Italian came back to defeat German qualifier Peter Torebko 5-7, 6-4, 7-6(3) in three hours and 10 minutes. Lorenzi next faces No. 3 seed Laslo Djere.

In an all-Italian opener, Stefano Travaglia dismissed Thomas Fabbiano 6-3, 6-2 to set a meeting with Fabio Fognini, the top seed. Fognini, currently at a career-high No. 9 in the ATP Rankings, won the Umag title in 2016.

A pair of Argentines also advanced Tuesday. Facundo Bagnis knocked out No. 7 seed Martin Klizan 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, and eighth seed Leonardo Mayer defeated Pablo Andujar 6-1, 7-5. Meanwhile, sixth-seeded Serbian Filip Krajinovic saved a set point at 5-4 in the opening set as he came back to defeat Japan’s Taro Daniel 7-5, 7-6(4).

In doubles action, top-seeded Austrians Oliver Marach and Jurgen Melzer opened their Umag campaign with a 6-2, 7-6(2) win over Pedro Sousa and Stefano Travaglia.