After a long afternoon and evening where rain held sway over the pace of play, John Isner and Juan Martin del Potro emerged victorious to set up a battle of big men in the Citi Open final in Washington D.C.
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Isner was first to come through, winning his eighth consecutive match in typical ace-dependent fashion, 6-7(7), 6-3, 6-4 over 30-year-old Dmitry Tursunov of Russia. After dropping the first set in a tiebreaker, the top-ranked American got a reprieve when the rains came while he was looking at a break point early in the second set.
30 minutes later, when play resumed, Isner converted the break on the first point and never looked back. Isner racked up 29 aces over the course of the match, and did not face a break point en route to his 27th victory of the season.
"You really can't see the serve too well. ... It's really just a lot of guessing," Tursunov said.
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After taking the Atlanta title last week, the 28-year-old North Carolina native has now played eight matches in ten days. "My body doesn't feel great," Isner said. "At the same time, nothing is wrong with me, besides just being a little tired and a little worn out. But that's what happens when you play well."
Isner, the tours ace leader with 587, will face Juan Martin del Potro in Sunday's final in the nation's capital.
After falling behind 4-1 in the first set, Del Potro emerged from a three and a half hour rain delay to wrestle control of his semifinal from 35-year-old Tommy Haas to win, 7-6(4), 6-3.
"The rain, for sure, helped me to come back in this match," said the seventh-ranked del Potro, who hasn't dropped a set in three previous victories against Isner.
Haas would have two set points in the first set, but the top-seeded Argentine took care of those with a 117 MPH second-serve ace down the T and a volley winner.
"He went for it," a disappointed Haas would later say. "He deserved it."
Haas drops to 0-5 in his career against Del Potro with the loss, while Del Potro improves to 29-9 on the season with the victory. The big man from Argentina has now won 13 consecutive matches at the Citi Open, dating back to his two previous appearances at the event in 2008 and 2009, when he won back-to-back titles.
The last time Del Potro won in D.C., he used the victory as a springboard to his one and only Grand Slam title at the 2009 U.S. Open.
Tomorrow, Del Potro will try to remain perfect at the Citi Open against a player that he has owned in the past. He has won all six sets he has played against Isner, and has beaten the American at his own game, claiming two tiebreakers against him at Indian Wells in 2009.
Isner has the tour's best tiebreaker winning percentage among active players, but he has dropped his last two in D.C. Still, the American has won eight of his last eleven and owns an ATP-best tiebreaker record of 28-9 on the season.
"Against Isner, here in the United States, on hard courts, and with his serve, it's going to be a really terrible match for me but I will try to return some serves and play my game,” said Del Potro, who is bidding for his 15th career title. “Being in the final means a lot to me."
