Back to school for American tennis star ahead of Wimbledon clash with Andy Murray

John Isner managed to annoy every Scottish tennis fan

Author: Rob WallerPublished 29th Jun 2022
Last updated 29th Jun 2022

American veteran John Isner’s made an excruciating gaffe ahead of his Wimbledon second round showdown against Andy Murray, calling the two-times champion and former world number one English!

The 37-year old, who holds the record for the fastest-ever serve on the ATP tour of 157.2 mph, said of Murray’s first round victory on Monday: “I was watching him on the TV in the locker room - packed house, all cheering for him, England's best player ever."

Isner was a semi-finalist at Wimbledon in 2018, but aside from his rocket serve is best known for playing the longest professional tennis match in history at SW19 in 2010.

He lost to Nicolas Mahut after five sets and 183 games in a match which lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes and was played over the course of three days.

Andy playing pain free

Andy Murray won through to the second round defeating Australia's James Duckworth in four sets late on Monday night.

Crucially, the Dunblane player revealed afterwards that the stomach strain which hindered his preparations and forced him to miss Queen's Club had cleared up.

"Certainly I'm in a better place than I was last year when I played here," said the 35-year-old.

"In terms of pain I'm certainly in a better place than I was in 2017 when I played here.

"But, yeah, I don't know about having a deep run or not. I've got a pretty tricky match in the next round against Isner. I'll need to be on it for that one if I want to get through it."

Perfect record against the American

Murray's record against Isner, eight wins in eight meetings, means he should have nothing to fear on Wednesday, other than another late-night finish on Centre Court.

"I played well against John in the past. I don't think I've ever played him on grass before, so there will be different challenges," he added.

"He's played well here before. He was very close to making the final a few years ago. I'll need to play really well and certainly return a bit better than I did on Monday if I want to get through that.

"(Big servers) are obviously very tough players to play against because of the nature of how the matches go. You're not necessarily always in control of them.

"You can go four or five service return games where you're not getting any opportunities. There's not always lots of rhythm in the match, so it's difficult. But for whatever reason I've always played well against them."

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