Mired in an unmemorable 2011 and handed the cosmic booby-prize that is a first-round meeting with Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros, John Isner, the man who apparently has to make history at least once a season, took the five-time champion to five sets. That’s the first time Nadal has ever been forced to go the distance at this event, and all the credit must go to the American.
Isner may have come out on the wrong side of this four-hour encounter—6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-7 (2), 6-2, 6-4—but he gave his all, still battling and saving a match point on his serve at 3-5 down in the fifth set with a high backhand volley that had the Chatrier crowd cheering. He also gave an object lesson in seizing the day. After serving just two aces in a lost first set and down an early break in the second, Isner could have been forgiven for concluding that he didn’t want this particular day. But instead he dug deep and found a way to break back. While he generated more than a few titanic forehand winners from the baseline, he had much success coming forward; once his doubles-improved volleys began to find their marks, Nadal was forced to do more to pass him, and his usually laser-guided shots began to go astray. Two loose Nadal shots began the second set tie-break, and Isner played the third set like his sometimes-lumbering feet had wings, saving break points with audacious net plays and ripping a return winner to go up two sets to one.
Stealing fire from the gods and attempting to beat Nadal in a first-round encounter have certain similarities: both require titanic stature and a certain measure of insouciance. Isner is admirably unafraid of the limelight, and he didn’t lose because the fiery gaze of the world swivelled inexorably onto him like the Eye of Sauron as he stood a set away from the upset on Chatrier. He lost because Nadal found the answer to the question that had been put to him.
Faced with an opponent who was playing too well to be broken down, Nadal raised his own game, committing zero unforced errors in the fourth set and serving with more power and placement—so that when a tired double-fault from Isner handed the top seed a crucial early break, he hung on to it. In a fifth set that couldn’t be decided on Isner’s favored terms—a tiebreak—it was all Nadal. With fatigued errors creeping into Isner’s game and Nadal putting together runs of forehand winners for the first time, it was only going to end one way.
So Isner comes out on the wrong end of history this time. Sometimes if you put your hand in the fire, you get burned. But he leaves Paris with nothing to be ashamed of. Day seized.
As for Nadal, today’s encounter heightens the tantalizing possibility that there may be more questions than answers for the world No. 1 this year in Paris. It’s unlikely—but so is John Isner.
—Hannah Wilks