Isner Dominates, Leads Americans Into Second Round At Roland Garros

John Isner, who is competing at Roland Garros for the first time since 2018, experienced few problems on Sunday to beat wild card Elliot Benchetrit 6-4, 6-1, 6-3 in one hour and 42 minutes without dropping serve.

The American had not played a clay-court match since competing in Paris two years go, but he looked right at home on the terre battue. Isner frequented the net, winning 75 per cent of his points in the forecourt (24/32) to reach the second round at the clay-court major for the ninth time.

"For me the formula is always the same, and that's just try to hold my serve, go about my business that way," Isner said. "I was able to do that today, I guess play some big points well in big times. I was able to get off the court in pretty quick fashion."

The 21st seed only lost 11 of his first-serve points (39/50) and hit seven aces among 28 winners for a second-round meeting against wild card Sebastian Korda.

Korda, a #NextGenATP player who entered his match without a tour-level win, beat Italian veteran Andreas Seppi 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in two hours and 25 minutes. The 20-year-old, who was born in Bradenton, Florida, is the son of 1998 Australian Open champion and 1992 Roland Garros finalist Petr Korda.

This breakthrough comes after Korda pushed Denis Shapovalov to four sets in the first round of the US Open.

"Of course, just playing against the bigger guys gave me a lot of confidence," Korda said. "It gave me belief that I could keep up with these guys and play with them."

Elsewhere, Taylor Fritz stymied #NextGenATP Czech Tomas Machac's upset bid 7-5, 7-6(2), 1-6, 2-6, 6-3 after three hours and 39 minutes. Fritz was frustrated and struggled for answers against the 19-year-old leading into the fourth set, but he settled down and made just four unforced errors in the decider. 

The 27th seed will next play Aussie Jordan Thompson or Moldovan Radu Albot.

from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/3cyZL9W