18/03/2012 08:34 CEST - Rassegna Internazionale

Isner schianta Djokovic e si assicura la top ten (The New York Times)

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — John Isner is the sort of underdog who takes out the goliaths not with a slingshot, but with a rocket launcher.

Pounding his 20th ace past the outstretched backhand of the top seed and defending champion Novak Djokovic, Isner blasted his way into his first Masters 1000 final, beating No. 1-ranked Djokovic, 7-6 (7), 3-6, 7-6 (5), at the BNP Paribas Open.
In the final, Isner will face Roger Federer, who pulled off an impressive 6-3, 6-4 win over Rafael Nadal in cold and blustery conditions.
“I knew going into this year that I had the tools and I had the game to be able to at least compete with these guys,” Isner said. “I take the court no matter who I’m playing expecting to win and believing to win. There’s really no reason to take the court if I believe otherwise.”
The victory signified a number of milestones for the 26-year-old Isner. It was his first win over Djokovic in three tries and his first win over an ATP No. 1. The win made him the first American to beat a No. 1-ranked player since James Blake upset Roger Federer at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and it guaranteed that Isner would move into the top 10 for the first time in this week’s rankings. He also has a chance to become the first American not named Andy Roddick or Andre Agassi to win a Masters 1000 tournament since 2001.
“It’s a matter of belief, I think, in the end, and confidence on the court,” Djokovic said when asked what has recently separated Isner from the pack of big servers lurking outside the top tier of the ATP rankings. “I mean, with that serve and with that forehand, he’s got the ability to be a top-10 player.
“It’s just a matter of really trusting your instincts and your strokes and your quality. I think it all came together for him now, and he’s deservedly in the top 10 now.”
While the aces have come to be expected from Isner, it is his returning (once notoriously inept during his 70-68 fifth-set victory over Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon in 2010) that has brought Isner closer to the world’s best players. The third-set tiebreaker with Djokovic turned not on an ace, but when Isner stepped around his backhand to rip a forehand return winner that put him ahead, 4-2.
With this deeper arsenal, Isner, who is 6 feet 9 inches, has turned giant killer. Unseeded at the French Open last year, Isner took the second and third sets from the top-seeded Nadal. Although he lost the fourth and fifth sets to Nadal, who went on to win his sixth French Open title, Isner became the first player to force him into a fifth set at the tournament.
In a Davis Cup match on clay in Fribourg, Switzerland, in January, Isner ripped back-to-back return winners off Federer’s serve to close out what was an ultimately lopsided four-set win.
The top four men — Djokovic, Nadal, Federer and Andy Murray — have combined to lose only four matches in 2012 to players besides one another.
Two of those four losses have now come at the hands of Isner.