John Isner and Tomas Berdych faced off in the last warm-up event before the 2012 US Open.
The first half of 2012 was a memorable one for Isner. The American played impressively at Davis Cup with wins on clay against Roger Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and cracked the Top 10 for the first time. However, he failed to win a title.
That changed after Wimbledon when he hit the grass courts in Newport, R.I. From there he went on a hot streak, posting a 13-3 record over four tournaments. In his final tune-up before the US Open, Isner reached the final in Winston-Salem, N.C., where he was the defending champion.
In the final, he would face Berdych, whose summer wasn’t going to plan. The veteran Czech reached two finals on the clay, but had struggled during the hard-court season. On his way to this championship match—his fourth of the year—he won three of his four matches in straight sets.
Facing each other for the first time in two years, Berdych held a 2-1 advantage over Isner in their head-to-head encounters. The Czech struck first in this match, breaking Isner’s serve in the fifth game and riding that advantage out to take the first set 6-3.
In the second, though, Isner turned the tables on Berdych by gaining a break in the world No. 7’s opening game. Reversing his struggles from the first set on his serve, the American hit nine aces en route to leveling the match.
In the decider, neither player was able to replicate their earlier feat of gaining an advantage on the other’s serve and the set went to a tiebreak. Isner went up 3-1, but Berdych overcame that mini-break and eventually earned a match point at 6-5. Venturing to the net, the Czech missed a backhand volley, which enabled Isner to get back on even ground.
Berdych got another match point at 6-7, which Isner erased with an ace. The defending champion earned his own match point at 10-9 and after scraping out a hard-hit forehand and backhand from Berdych, struck a forehand winner to clinch the title, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (9).
2
Of his 15 career singles finals, this was only Berdych’s second in the U.S. His only other championship appearance came in 2010, when he lost to Andy Roddick in Miami.
3
Berdych was the third former Grand Slam finalist Isner beat in a title match in his career, after Arnaud Clement in Auckland in 2010 and Lleyton Hewitt in July 2012 in Newport.
10
Of Isner’s 12 career singles finals, 10 of them featured at least one tiebreak.
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