LONDON _ Win or lose in his Wimbledon semifinal Friday against Kevin Anderson, John Isner is changing his narrative here. The 33-year-old American has reached the first Grand Slam semifinal of his long career where he has been best known as a 6-10 big server who won the longest match in Wimbledon _ and tennis _ history.
"Of course, everyone is going to remember that match in 2010, and rightfully so," Isner said. "I like to think that since that match, I've done a lot of good stuff on the court performance-wise. But for a lot of people, that's definitely the lasting image of my career. I think if I can keep going further here, I can maybe squash that."
This was the final scoreline of that win over Nicolas Mahut: 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70�68. It took 11 hours over the course of three days to complete. Isner is playing the same game here, maybe a little more volleying, but with 160 tournament aces so far he leads the men's field by a mile. The 144-mph serve he hit in the second round win over Ruben Bemelmans was three miles short of the fastest serve all fortnight.
No. 9 Isner and No. 8 Anderson have played before. Many times. Both played college tennis, not the most conventional path to the ATP. Isner was at Georgia and Anderson at Illinois. On the ATP Tour, Isner has an 8-3 advantage and has won the last four meetings.
"There could be a little mental aspect in our match," Isner said. "I say that because our rivalry goes back way before the pro tour. We played each other in college probably three, four, five times. We played each other a bunch on the pro tour. We've been lined up against each other for about 14 years now, because he left Illinois when I left Georgia. We've been doing it ever since."
Isner won the first Masters Series event of his career in Miami this year. Anderson offered a bit of a scouting report after his win over top seed Roger Federer in the quarterfinals.
"In the matches I've played him, obviously taking care of your serve is the first priority," said Anderson, the inaugural New York Open champion this past February. "It's a match that's often won on just a couple points here and there. I feel confident in sort of baseline exchanges with John. At the same time, because he's such a big player, has so much firepower, you just can't be too patient. You have to still be aggressive, put him on the back foot."
Isner and Anderson will play the earlier semifinal on Centre Court on Friday, followed by No. 2 Rafael Nadal and No. 12 Novak Djokovic.
"With how I'm feeling physically and mentally, I'm in a very good spot," Isner said. "I think I can keep doing damage here."
