John Isner: In It to Win It.

by Parsa Samii, GEM Tennis (parsa@gemtennis.com)

New York, US Open — The last match of the first round belonged to John Isner and Federico Gil. The big serving Isner was able to routinely defeat the Portuguese star in straight sets 6-4, 6-3, 6-4. Isner has been a question mark coming into the 2010 US Open. After his historic match at Wimbledon with Frenchman Nicolas Mahut, Isner hasn’t been able to move on from the moment. He’s world famous for the longest match ever in the history of our sport, but after tonight’s match he wants to move on and become one of the world’s best.

This is what he said to ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi, “that’s something I’m always going to remember and it was truly a pleasure to be on the court with Nicolas [mahut] on that day. It was a pretty historic day and I was glad I was a part of it but I want to put it behind me and do well at big tournaments.” Isner explained, “This is my favorite tournament in the world, this is the one I want to do the best at.”

His words sound strong and the crowd roared its approval. Isner has also been dealing with ligament damage in his ankle. He was supposed to be out of action for 4-6 weeks, but through lots of physical therapy and attention to his ankle, Isner has recovered only 2 weeks after his diagnosis. This guy is a battler and he’s in a battle to clear his name and plant himself into the world’s top 10 right as I’m writing this. After today’s performance and his amazing recovery from injury he officially, as far as GEM Tennis is concerned, becomes the darkhorse to win the tournament. This should be fun!

Enjoy the action from the US Open and check out GEMTennis.com for out latest story from New York!