(Tennis news) After competing in the U.S. Open, John Isner will conclude his career as a professional tennis player, he revealed on Wednesday. His career has included one Grand Slam semifinal appearance and the triumph in the longest match in the history of the game.
“This transition won’t be easy but I’m looking forward to every second of it with my amazing family,” the big-serving, 6-foot-10 (2.08-meter) American wrote in a posting on social media that included a photo showing Isner, his wife and their four children.
“Time to lace ‘em up one last time,” the 38-year-old Isner said, referring to the year’s last major tournament, which begins in New York on Monday.
Isner has won 16 singles titles, an ATP Tour record of more over 14,000 aces, and a No. 8 lifetime ranking. He also has more than 14,000 aces in his career, which he struck just after making the Wimbledon semifinals.
This includes 113, the record for a single match, in his victory over Nicolas Mahut in the 2010 All England Club first round, which lasted 11 hours, 5 minutes over the course of several days and ended at 70-68 in the fifth set.
The wall outside Court 18, where the match was played, now has a plaque honouring it.
“Especially once the match got past, you know, 25-all, I wasn’t really thinking,” Isner said back in 2010. “Hitting a serve and trying to hit a forehand winner is the only thing I was doing.”
Eight years later, in the Wimbledon semifinals, Isner lost to Kevin Anderson by a score of 26-24 in the fifth set, and those two matches served as major catalysts for the sport’s decision to adopt tiebreakers as the norm in the decisive sets at all Grand Slam competitions.
He played tennis at the University of Georgia, where he helped the Bulldogs win the 2007 NCAA team tennis championship, before turning pro that same year. He was born in North Carolina.
Isner received more than $22 million in prize money, and he held the title of top American man for many years. His ATP ranking fell to No. 158 this week and he has only gone 8-13 in 2023.
At the first three Grand Slam events of this season, Isner lost in the opening round each time. At Wimbledon last year, when he overcame Andy Murray on Centre Court, he advanced to the third round for the first time ever in a major tournament.
“It’s no secret that I am most definitely not a better tennis player than Andy Murray. I might have been just a little bit better than him today. It was an incredible honour to play him on this court, in front of this crowd,” Isner said that day. “At the age I’m at now, I need to relish these moments. This was one of the biggest wins of my career.”
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