TENNIS in DEPTH.

John Isner, who won his two Davis Cup matches against France last weekend in Monte Carlo and is playing the U.S. Men’s Clay Courts this week in Houston, will pull out of next week’s ATP Masters 1000 event in Monte Carlo. ”I will go back home [to Florida after Houston] and work with my coach, Craig Boynton,” Isner told reporters. “I need to get in better shape if I want to do good in these next two majors coming up and Masters events [in Madrid and Rome]. I need to be in better shape, put my head down, go back to work and get my body right.”

Isner, who has beaten three players in the Top 6 in the last two months—Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga—believes his game has advanced leaps and bounds. ”I feel like I’m a much better player. I’m a more improved player, I’m a more confident player; to compete at this level and do well you have to be confident that’s what I have on my side. I know confidence can come and go and I think I proved that throughout the course of 2012 so far. I think that match against Roger in Switzerland certainly I played close to my highest level on clay, away with 7,500 people cheering against us; I played the right way and I kind of realized at that point that’s how I need to play. I’ve tried to stay engaged I’d like to think I’m sort of a nightmare to play.”

During Davis Cup, Isner cheered on fellow former Georgia Bulldog Bubba Watson, who won the Masters golf tournament.

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Isner fired his 20th ace of the match to topple the top seed and defending champion 7-6(7) 3-6 7-6(5) on Saturday. Federer then unleashed an ace on match point to seal a 6-3 6-4 victory over world No.2 Rafael Nadal as the two renewed their epic rivalry with their first meeting at the Indian Wells Masters.

Isner’s first victory over a world No.1 ensures he will move into the top 10 for the first time on Monday. “Not many people can say they’ve ever beaten the No.1 player in the world,” said the 26-year-old American. “I’ll always be able to say that. “I’m just going to keep on riding this wave I’m on and see how far it can take me.” For Djokovic, 24, it marked a second straight semi-final defeat after he fell at the same stage in Dubai to Andy Murray. The reigning Australian, US and Wimbledon champion is 14-2 in 2012. “It’s frustrating when somebody serves over 70 per cent of the first serves in and with that angle and with that speed and accuracy,” Djokovic said. Djokovic saved a match point in the 12th game of the third set and two more on his own serve in the deciding tiebreaker before Isner closed it out after two hours, eight minutes.

One of the sport’s great rivalries was on display in the second semi-final between 16-time grand slam winner Federer and reigning French Open champ Nadal which started three and a half hours late and was played in difficult windy and rainy conditions. “I had a good day. It was a great match in tough conditions,” Federer said. “It was so difficult but, man, I couldn’t be more happy. I played amazing. “We both expected rain, and it did rain a few times.” Federer even had a few extra minutes to think about what turned out to be his final ace after officials pulled the players off the court because of rain just as he held match point leading 5-4 and 40-30. He returned a few moments later and hammered the final nail in the coffin – a 201km ace that ended the one-hour, 31-minute match. “I thought about going down the ‘T’ but, when I was tossing the ball in the air, I thought I would go the other way,” he said.

Nadal and Federer had met 27 times previously but never before on the hardcourts at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

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Novak dismissed 12th-seeded Spaniard Nicolas Almagro in straight sets 6-3, 6-4 in 81 minutes at the BNP Paribas Open on Thursday to reach the semi-finals of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event. 2008 and 2011 IW champion made a break in the fourth game of the opening set. The Spaniard bounced back, but handed the break straight back to the world’s best player to put the Serb back in front by two. This time Nole consolidated the break for 5-2 lead. He wrapped up the first set in 30 minutes with a love service game. The top seed broke Almagro in the ninth game of the second set when the Spaniard hit a backhand long. Novak held serve to love in the 10th, an ace putting him 40-0 up before he ended the match with a crunching backhand winner down the line.

“It was always going to be a tough match,” Novak said in a courtside interview after reaching the last four. “Almagro is an established top 10 player. What made me very happy and satisfied with my game today was my serving. When I had chances, I used them.”

Match statistics: aces (5-3), double faults (0-3), winners (13-14), unforced errors (17-30), break point conversion (3/7 – 1/1), total points won (67-48). With the victory, Novak improved to 14-1 on the season. He is looking to win his third trophy at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. The 24-year-old will look to advance into the finals for the fourth time when he squares off against John Isner (11) on Saturday. The American defeated Frenchman Gilles Simon (13) in three sets 6-3, 1-6, 7-5. Nole leads Isner 2-0, their last match was at 2010 Beijing SFs (7-6(1), 6-2).

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John Isner missed out on the men’s semi-finals in Memphis after a straight-sets defeat by Austria’s Jurgen Melzer on Friday. The 26-year-old’s serve let him down in the first set as he was broken twice, and Melzer took the second on a tie-break to complete a 6-3 7-6 (8/6) win. Third seed Radek Stepanek awaits in the last four after dumping out Sam Querrey in straight sets to end American interest in the tournament. The Czech required a tie-break to take the opening set but swept through the second to win 7-6 (7/5) 6-0.

Big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic, seeded fourth, took his place with a straight-sets win over Olivier Rochus. The diminutive Belgian, giving away 11 inches in height to his young opponent, did well to hang in the match in the face of a barrage of 26 aces – to his three – but was beaten 6-3 7-6 (7/3). Germany’s Benjamin Becker is next in Raonic’s cross-hairs after a hard-fought 7-5 7-6 (7/5) win over Lukasz Kubot which lasted over two hours.

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One of the biggest shocks in recent Davis Cup history was completed on Saturday afternoon when the US doubles team of Mike Bryan and Mardy Fish beat Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka in four sets to see the Americans through to April’s quarterfinals. The reverberations from John Isner’s stunning win over Federer on Friday night carried through to the doubles, which followed a very similar pattern to the Isner-Federer singles. The Swiss won the opening set and looked reasonably comfortable for a set and a half, but once the Americans had broken, the balance of power shifted, and Federer in particular fell away at the end as the US pair won 46 63 63 63 in 2 hours 18 minutes. Because so much was made of Federer’s return to the Davis Cup first round for the first time in eight years, it’s easy to see this result as a disaster for the Swiss. A disappointment it certainly is, but to view it as a disaster would be to take too much credit away from an American team that seems finally to have lost its fear of away clay.

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And it gets worse from there — in 1973, no U.S. men entered the Australian Open.

Feliciano Lopez of Spain held off Isner’s charge before 10,000 cheering spectators and ushered the 6-foot 9-inch American to the sidelines, 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-7 (0), 6-1. “For me, it was a fantastic match,” Lopez told reporters. “In the fifth set, I hit a fantastic passing shot. I’m very happy with my performance.” In the final game, Lopez had double-faulted on the doorstep of match point, but then Isner botched a backhand service return that gave the Spaniard a second chance.

Repeatedly stymied by Lopez’s strong serve, Isner, seeded 16th, had spent much of the early stages of the match with shoulders slumped and head lowered. By the middle of the fourth set, he had hit more than 41 unforced errors and 42 forced errors, a signal that the Spaniard was pressing the points more forcefully. Leading 3-2 in the fourth set, Isner called for a medical timeout. A trainer applied a bandage to a toe on Isner’s right foot as Chair Umpire Pascal Maria of France looked down, smiling and chatting with Isner as the trainer worked. Despite his respite, Isner’s chances of breaking Lopez’s stride seemed to diminish steadily. The Spaniard won his serve at love to tie the score at 5-5 and again at 6-6. But in the key tiebreaker, Isner jumped off to a 5-0 lead, scoring on two Lopez errors and three of his own winners, including an overhead smash that bounded far beyond Lopez’s reach, and a half-volley winner that shot into the backhand corner. Suddenly, Isner’s hangdog demeanor evaporated. He began racing from side to side and charging the net, no longer consulting his shoelaces in despair. Lopez seemed stunned, yielding a sixth and seventh point on his own errors, and walking with his head down to his chair in the changeover. Isner seemed energized, ready to claim another cliffhanger. But there were clues that he might not succeed.

By the start of the fifth set, Lopez, seeded 18th, had served so effectively that he had lost only a single break point, a statistic that never changed over the 3 hours and 26 minutes of the match.

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Isner won the thrilling five-setter 4-6 6-3 2-6 7-6 (7-5) 10-8, giving the American his second headline-grabbing match at a grand slam after his 11-hour marathon at Wimbledon two years ago against Frenchman Nicholas Mahut. But on Margaret Court Arena last night the man in the hot-seat was chair umpire Kader Nouni, who over-ruled an Isner serve called out by the centre lineswoman. Nalbandian was on a break point with the games at 8-8 in the fifth, which took 99 minutes to complete. The Argentinian did not hear Nouni say “the ball was good” because of the noise from the packed arena. But when he realised the change, he went to look at the mark on the court before issuing a challenge. Nouni denied Nalbandian a Hawk-Eye replay, saying it was too late to challenge.

Play was held up for several minutes while a supervisor was called. Television replays showed the ball was out. But the supervisor said he could not change the chair umpire’s call. Isner won the last two games and later Nalbandian said the controversial call was not the reason he lost the match. But he wanted the ATP, which governs the men’s tour, and the ITF, which runs the four grand slams, to investigate.

“If they really want to do something, I don’t need to do anything, because it’s on the TV, on the video,” he said. “And every time I talk to ATP, it’s like nothing, so what is ATP … is it for the players or for somebody else?” He had no doubts Nouni should not be allowed to officiate again. ”I don’t think he’s gonna be able to do this kind of matches. I mean, it’s no doubt about it,” Nalbandian said. ”I mean, it’s ridiculous playing this kind of tournament with this kind of umpires.”

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The big-serving American won three tie-breaks as he posted a four-set victory over his French foe on Thursday. It was not a case of serve domination, however. Best known for his 11-hour marathon match with Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon in 2010, Isner lost his own delivery four times during the clash which had originally been scheduled to start on Tuesday. It finally got under way on Thursday morning out on Court 17 and the first set saw two breaks apiece before Isner moved in front. Simon, fresh from an impressive win over former champion Juan Martin Del Potro in the previous round, hit back in the second set though, showing Isner he would not have things all his own way despite the partisan atmosphere. The third set always looked like it would be crucial and after 12 service holds another tie-break was required, but Isner took control of it early on and refused to relent. Another tight set followed but again the tie-break king triumphed to record a hard-fought 7-6 (7/2) 3-6 7-6 (7/2) 7-6 (7/4) victory. Isner finished with a total of 26 aces and progresses to a last-eight showdown with Murray on Friday.

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