TENNIS in DEPTH.

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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John Isner, who grew up in nearby Greensboro, lifted the third ATP World Tour title of his career on Saturday in front of his family and friends at the Winston-Salem Open at Forest Wake University. Isner recorded a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over French qualifier Julien Benneteau to improve to a 3-5 mark in ATP World Tour finals. The 26-year-old American Benneteau earned $74,630 in prize money and received 250 South African Airways 2011 ATP Rankings points. Benneteau, who is now 0-5 in finals, picked up $42,500 and 150 points. World No. 113 Benneteau did not face a break point in the first set, winning 20 of his 23 service points. He broke Isner’s serve to 30 at 4-4 and went onto wrap up the opener in 34 minutes. Isner responded by hitting six aces and dropping nine points to win the 43-minute second set. It meant Benneteau, who lost his serve at 3-4 in a closely fought game, would play his fourth straight three-set match of the week. Isner converted his second of two break point opportunities at 2-2 and maintained the advantage to seal victory in just over two hours. Both players won 72 per cent of their service points, but Isner hit 19 aces in total to Benneteau’s six.

Benneteau was attempting to become the ninth first-time winner on the ATP World Tour this season, the oldest of the nine at 29 years of age, and also the first qualifier to lift a trophy since Sergiy Stakhovsky at the St. Petersburg Open in November 2009. World No. 28 Isner improves to a 28-18 match record on the season by picking up his second ATP World Tour title in six weeks. The American has now won 17 of his past 21 matches, including his title success at the Campbell’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport, immediately after The Championships at Wimbledon.

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Andy Roddick will take on fellow American John Isner in the semi-finals of the Winston-Salem Open after the duo won their respective quarter-finals against Juan Monaco and Marcos Baghdatis. The 28-year-old did not face a break point, surrendering only nine points on serve in total, and converted three of his five chances on Monaco’s serve. Fourth seed Isner, in contrast, had a far tougher contest. The world number 28 fought back from a set down to defeat the former world number Baghdatis 1-6 6-3 6-4 with the pair set to meet again next week in the first round of the US Open. Roddick will take a 3-1 lead into the match and he said: “You can have a game plan, but it’s a lot tougher to execute. ”A lot of times it’s out of your hands and it’s completely different from the matches I’ve played so far. ”It’s just whoever can scrape a return back on a big point and hope that something good happens. ”The biggest thing is you’ve just got to try and take care of your own serve. ”I don’t often go into a match with the second-best serve, but that will be the case tomorrow.”

In the other semi-final Robin Haase will meet Julien Benneteau. Haase knocked out Alexandr Dolgopolov despite the third seed producing 15 aces. The Dutch player enjoyed more all-round consistency although both players produced a number of double faults – five for Haase and six for his opponent. Haase, though, had more success on his serve as he won 6-4 6-4 in an hour. Benneteau produced an upset when he knocked out Sergiy Stakhovsky who is ranked 72 places above the Frenchman at 41. Stakhovsky served up 12 aces – three more than Benneteau – but also nine double faults as his opponent claimed a 3-6 7-6 (11/9) 6-2 victory, saving a match point in the second-set tie-break.

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Kevin Anderson is through to the quarter-finals of the Atlanta Tennis Championships for the second consecutive year after a 6-1 7-5 win over Michael Russell. The big-serving second seed fired down 10 aces to set-up a last-eight meeting with Gilles Muller, who edged past wild card Robby Ginepri 7-6 (8-6) 2-6 6-2.

John Isner won an epic all-American clash with James Blake 7-6 (10-8) 6-7 (7-3) 7-5 in just shy of three hours. Blake battled back from a break down in the second to take the match to a decider but his younger opponent held on. Third-seeded Isner will now meet Yen-Hsun Lu after he recovered well from a set down to beat qualifier Marinko Matosevic 3-6 6-1 6-2.

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Rafael Nadal was taken the distance at the French Open for the first time on Tuesday as he narrowly kept his hopes of a record-equalling sixth title alive. Big-serving American John Isner had the defending champion on the ropes in the very first round at Roland Garros but Nadal came from two sets to one down to win 6-4 6-7 (2/7) 6-7 (2/7) 6-2 6-4. It was the first time in 40 French Open matches that Nadal had been taken to a fifth set. He had won 38 of his previous 39, his only defeat coming to Robin Soderling in four sets in 2009.

Things began normally enough for Nadal, who broke Isner’s serve in the ninth game of the first set before serving out for a one-set lead. However, after Nadal had broken again at the start of the second set, the Isner fightback began. Famous for winning the longest match in tennis history at Wimbledon last year, Isner broke back and then won the resultant tie-break. Nadal had won the 2010 title without dropping a set in the entire tournament, yet here he was in his first match 12 months on and already facing a real battle. Still, there was no need to panic for the champion and despite some stubborn resistance from Isner, Nadal created two set points in the third at 5-6 15-40. Isner saved both with big serves and his booming deliveries continued in the tie-break to open his shock lead. The alarm bells were now ringing for Nadal but he did not panic and hit back with an excellent fourth set that yielded not a single unforced error from the Spaniard’s racquet. With Isner’s serve not so potent now, Nadal then broke to love in the third game of the decider and managed to hold onto his advantage before launching into an exuberant celebration, reminiscent of some of his greatest days on Court Philippe Chatrier.

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Mardy Fish and John Isner of the United States lost their matches to Argentina in the semifinals of the World Team Cup. Juan Monaco edged Fish 7-6 (4), 7-5 Thursday, while Juan Ignacio Chela defeated John Isner 6-1, 7-6 (1). Fish held opportunities in each set, but Monaco was able to hold off the challenge. Isner never looked comfortable against Chela in the opening set before taking it to a tiebreaker in the second set.

The other finalist will be decided Friday among Germany, Serbia, Russia and Spain.

The United States has reached a low point in tennis. Not merely because the country no longer churns out new champions with regularity, but also because it is not really relevant at the top of the game right now. Earlier this month, for the first time in more than 35 years of computerized rankings, no player from the U.S. appeared in the ATP or WTA top 10. Plus, the last American man to win a Grand Slam singles title was Roddick, at the 2003 U.S. Open—29 major tournaments ago. If, as expected, that drought continues at the French Open, which starts Sunday in Paris, the gap will equal the longest in history for U.S. men—a 30-Slam shutout from 1955-63.

“We’re so used to having champions for the last, oh, century,” said Venus Williams, owner of seven major singles titles. “Right now is something we’re not used to.”

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