John Isner admitted that the various instances where he thought he had won the Dallas Open final against Wu Yibing. On Sunday, Wu saved four championship points to beat home favorite Isner 6-7(4) 7-6(3) 7-6(12) and become the first Chinese player with an ATP title.
“It’s hard to lose. I don’t know how many match points I had, I’m sure there are a lot. I swear I thought I won the match a couple of times. I know you hit a ball. It had to be [on] the sixteenth back of the line at one of the points.
Sports can be brutal. I also had a match point in the second set,» Isner said, according to the ATP website.
Isner missed out on four championship points against Wu
Isner saved a set point on serve in the 12th game, before converting her first set point on the tiebreaker to win the opening set.
In game 12 of the second set, Wu saved Isner’s first championship point to force a tiebreaker in the second set, which he dominated to send the match to a decider. In the third set, the lone break points came in the ninth game, when Isner failed to notice any of his two consecutive break points.
In the third set tie-break, Isner missed three more championship points before Wu realized his fifth championship point to win his first ATP title. After playing Wu for the first time, Isner described the Chinese as «an amazing ballstriker.» “It’s like he plays all the points the same way, so there are definitely no nerves.
He gets a ball to hit, he hits it, and on this court it’s hard to hit a shot that he’s uncomfortable with. He’s an incredible ball-striker and he’s very talented,» Isner said of Wu’s performance. Meanwhile, Isner came close to clinching his first ATP title in a year and a half, his last title coming in 2021 in Atlanta.
Isner was scheduled to compete in this week’s Delray Beach Open but decided to withdraw from the tournament.
