A mixture of Isner's service and Andy's general game would be quite a good player 

Anyway, good match from Andy so far.  Bit worrying wobble at 5 - 6 when I think he made 3 of his 4 UEs.

Difficult to know how aggresive to be, I think at times as the commentators say he could have gone for more on shots and been a bit amore aggresive but in the % game Andy knows in general the longer against Isner the rally goes the better his chance.  I guess most important in general is just don't miss clear chances to keep on top of and end rallies.

So while I wuld favour very aggresive ( well, on Andy's aggresion scale anyway  ) against say Nadal, a less agressive more considered approach is appropriate for Isner as long as not falling into too passive play  -  i.e. still be doing stuff with ball making Isner move and work.

-- Edited by indiana on Sunday 24th of January 2010 01:36:38 AM

Big chance here... c'mon Andy .. Yesss !!!!!! 5-3 and serving now for 2-0

Actually, generally going for it more more on serve has maybe got him into trouble on his last service games of each set.

Taking pace of the fiirst serve and getting it in much more has been serving him well.  It's good going for it of course when it works, easy point, but always a danger giving Isner a look at a second sereve.

Anyway, good stuff Andy.  Surely no way back for Isner   

Unbelievable return from Andy to break! Is that GSM ?

That was much easier than I was expecting. Shouldn't have exhausted him too much. Should have answered his critics by upping his 1st serve percentage although he was serving pretty slowly for much of the time. Still, if it works then that's all he has to do.

In case anyone didn't hear from the Eurosport commentators - any further matches Andy plays should be at night.

Good display. One or two careless points, most notably that lob that went long on a rare break point, but otherwise an intelligent, compact display exploiting weaknesses in Isner's game. Slightly strange to see Andy kick in so many first serves but Isner seemed to struggle with the lack of pace, and had far more success blocking back faster serves.

A few sensational shots in that third set. The backhand pass on the run from so deep behind the baseline was astonishing. Isner is an interesting player to watch. His serve is incredible, especially the pace on his 2nd serve. I was concerned that in amongst a lot of abysmal backhands, he might pull off two or three in a row to break but though he did threaten a few times, he could never convert on the break point. He has to be the worst professional player I've seen when it comes to responding to drop shots, his attempts were wretched, just horrible, which encouraged Andy to play even more of them. Forget serve and volley, there were games that consisted of little more than serve followed immediately by a drop shot.



-- Edited by kundalini on Sunday 24th of January 2010 03:02:08 AM

airsmashers wrote:

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You can't ask for much more from Andy in that match, now all we need is for Karlovic to extend Nadal to 5 very long sets.

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 and then win