TENNIS in DEPTH.

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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On Tuesday night  Roddick re-established order as he comfortably defeated the fourth-highest ranked American 7-5, 6-2 in 67 minutes. “It’s tough playing it because you know the pressure is on me when I play him,” said the top American. “That’s just the way it is, so sure, it is uneasy but I like it. One of the things that keeps me going is trying to maintain my place.” Roddick broke for a 6-5 lead in the first set and opened the second with another break. He finished the night by going 3 for 3 on his break point chances, while conceding just seven points on serve. “Going 3 for 3 on break points against him is not normal,” said Roddick. “I don’t think he played that well tonight. I think he felt a little uncomfortable. I was just trying to fight off returns and do what I could and put the ball in the courts. It was enough.”

Roddick, a finalist last year in Indian Wells, will next face Frenchman Richard Gasquet. The No. 18 seed advanced to the fourth round for a fourth time in Indian Wells as he eased past World No. 10 Jurgen Melzer 6-1, 6-3 in 61 minutes on Stadium 2.

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Davis Cup teammates Andy Roddick and John Isner will face off in the third round after they posted back-to-back wins on Stadium One, Sunday afternoon.  Roddick broke Blake to go up 6-5 in the second set and proceeded to clinch the 6-3, 7-5 victory with his 13th ace. It was his eighth win in 11 matches against his countryman, a former World No. 4 who has dropped to a No. 158 ranking after an injury-plagued 2010 season. In the first match of the day, the 30th-ranked Isner fired 12 aces to defeat Brazilian Ricardo Mello 6-3, 7-6(2). Isner had lost four of his past five matches coming into the year’s first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament, and hoped to turn things around with a strong showing in Indian Wells. “I want to have a great result here,” he said. “I haven’t been playing that well, and hitting the right shots at the right time has just been sort of a struggle. But I know coming here and playing on this surface and this environment is very good for my game. So this tournament, for me, is coming at the right time.”

Roddick, a finalist in Indian Wells last year (l. to Ljubicic), has a 2-1 record against Isner but lost their most recent meeting in 2009 at the US Open; Isner prevailed in a fifth-set tie-break after three hours and 11 minutes of play.

A pair of Frenchmen won their opening matches early Sunday afternoon. No. 18 Richard Gasquet converted on two of three break points in a 7-5, 6-3 win over Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas, while No. 24 Michael Llodra beat Colombian Santiago Giraldo 7-6(6), 6-4. Llodra next meets 16th-seeded Serbian Viktor Troicki, who advanced with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Australian wild card Bernard Tomic. Llodra and Troicki met in the decisive fifth rubber of last year’s Davis Cup Final, a match Troicki won in straight sets to clinch Serbia’s first Davis Cup title.

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Paul Capdeville pulls off possibly the biggest win of his career to stun John Isner and bring Chile level with USA at the end of the opening day. Capdeville fought back from 2-0 down to take the match to a decisive fifth set before sealing the first break of the match to lead 5-4 and then promptly served it out. The first 4 sets were all decided by tiebreaks. The Chilean is ranked 133 places below Isner in the rankings.

Andy Roddick has given the USA the early advantage aganst Chile in Davis Cup by BNP Paribas. The world No. 8 took two hours 49 minutes to get past Nicolas Massu 62 46 63 64 in very hot conditions. Roddick opened up a 3-1 lead in the first set and then claimed it when Massu double faulted while serving to try and stay in the set. The Chilean managed to shake off that disappointment with a quick start in the second set. He broke Roddick in the first game, then the American sent a backhand wide to face break point before rifling a forehand wide on the next point to lose the game.

That was all the crowd needed to find its voice and they began to cheer with their national chant which grew louder as the points progressed. However, in the eighth game Roddick was given a chance to level things. Massu was up 40-0 but Roddick forged back and held two break points, but he was not able to convert and two games later Chile had levelled the first rubber. Roddick was not dejected and he continued to strike the ball with precision. He went up 4-2 against with Massu double faulting in the sixth game and after a hotly disputed call by Massu and the Chilean captain Hans Gildemeister in the ninth game, Roddick once again had the advantage.

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