Roger Federer Beats John Isner for Fourth Miami Open Crown and 101st Career Title
(March 31, 2019) Roger Federer won his fourth Miami Open title on Sunday for his 101st career trophy when he defeated defending champion, seventh seed John Isner 6-1, 6-4 in 63 minutes. Towards the end of the match Isner had some problems with his left foot and appeared to be limping in the last two games.
“I knew something was not right, the way he was moving was not well,” Federer said during the trophy ceremony. “But I can’t let that affect my game. Of course, I hope for John it’s nothing serious.”
“To stand here after so many years is absolutely incredible. John is a great player, a great person. I’m so sorry for your foot but I’m positive for you it’s all good and you’ll be playing great tennis for the rest of the year.”
“Roger, you were entirely too good today,” said Isner to Federer. “You were entirely too good this whole tournament. You were entirely too good your whole career. It’s absolutely incredible what you are doing.”
Federer started off the match by breaking Isner’s unusually unbreakable serve and never letting up, breaking one of the biggest servers in the game three times in the first set. Federer won all 20 of his first-serve points and broke Isner’s serve four times total in the match.
“Somewhere along in the first set I started feeling some pain on the top of my foot, and it didn’t go away. It only kept getting worse,” Isner said in his news conference.
“It’s a terrible feeling, because you’re on an island out there, and, you know, you have no teammates to hide behind and going up against the greatest player ever, you know, playing in this incredible atmosphere, and my foot’s killing me.
“Not that I would have won the match, anyways, let’s make that clear, but, you know, I think I could have made for a more interesting match and one that was a little more fun.”
“I knew at 3-4, whatever, I knew I wasn’t going to win. I can tell you that much. Which is a weird feeling, you know, being on serve in the finals of a match and knowing that I wasn’t going to win.
“Look, Roger was too good. In the first five games, I was fine. Nothing was bothering me. He was all over me. Then, you know, this weird pain on the top of my foot, we’ll see what is. I’m hoping it’s nothing, but we’ll see.”
‘After he called the trainer and I saw his face after the first point after the trainer, I was unsure about his health. But then, you know, he had a good game where he did hit his spots. I mean, he hit them so short, it was crazy. So I felt like, well, he can at least do that. I have seen John being incredibly tired and still serving his spots. I knew he could do that. One match came to my mind, I think it was against Roddick at the US Open in the fifth set when he just kept doing the same thing for the whole fifth set and he was able to beat him in the breaker.
“I felt, Well, you never know. And plus I could also start missing because of this whole situation. But then, of course, as in my service games, that’s then the true test. How much defense can he do? How much running around can he do? And this is maybe when I was thinking, well, this is maybe not just one game.
“And then latest, by the 5-4 game when he was starting to serve instead of at least 120, 125, he was starting to drop it to 105, 110, and I felt, well, now it’s not looking good. I saw him taking a painkiller, and that doesn’t kick in for the next three minutes. That takes usually 25 minutes to 30 minutes. So I did feel like, well, you never know.
“And I know with foot pain that these things feel like it’s the end of your career, but at the same time, two minutes later, you could be totally fine again.
“So it’s a tricky one. You don’t want to get too overexcited to think, well, let’s quickly finish this as quick as possible, because it could be this point or first couple of points he’s serving slow, and then he starts serving big again, because all of a sudden the pain is gone or it’s less.
“And that’s why it was just important to keep on doing what I was doing, and if he’s hurt, well, then that’s, so be it, and bad luck for him. And I think this is where experience kicks in for me. I’m able to stay calm, and, you know, just do it. You feel bad at the same time, but it’s part of the journey, I guess. And I just, after the game, of course, you’re just, like, you hope it’s nothing serious and I hope he’s fine. But it’s tricky, no doubt.
Roger Federer Beats John Isner for Fourth Miami Open Crown and 101st Career Title
“I just can be very happy on either end, return and serve, and that’s why I’m so happy that I was able to produce a performance like this in a finals, because this is what you train for and play for that constantly your level keeps going up as the tournament progresses. And this was my best. I’m very excited,” Federer said during his news conference.
The victory for the fourth seed Federer makes him the first person on either tour this tennis year to claim a second title.
At 101 titles, Federer stand behind all-time male title leader Jimmy Connors at 109 and at 28 Masters Series crowns, he trails Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
Federer now leads the ATP Race to London by 55 points over No. 1 Djokovic.
The 37-year-old Swiss also has the best record on the men’s tour this year after the first three months at 18-2. He is now 16-1 versus U.S. players in finals. His lone loss coming to Andre Agassi in the 2002 Miami Open final.
Federer will play the clay season this year. He hasn’t played it in a few years. He spoke to reports about returning to the surface:
“I’m not very confident going into this clay court season, I can tell you that, because I don’t know — I didn’t even remember how to slide anymore. You know, I’m taking baby steps at this point.
“To be honest, I didn’t play one point — not one shot on clay, I don’t believe, last year. Two years ago I played two days. Three years ago I played not feeling great in Monaco and Rome and all that. So it’s been so little that I really don’t know what to expect.
“And I think what this win does for me, it just takes even more pressure off from the clay court season. And I anyway wanted to play the clay in not a relaxed fashion but let’s just go and do it and prepare well. That’s what I’m looking at now the next four or five weeks with my fitness coach and coaches Ivan and Severin and Pierre, figuring out how we gonna go about it.
“Madrid is, like, Let’s see what happens, anyway. Obviously I want to be ready for Paris. I hope all of that work is going to pay off for the grass court season and also for the hard court season. Already just how I’ve been playing here and moving here makes me believe just going on vacation now, a bit of a break, and then preparation, you know, the things physically should be fine, but again, we’ll see how the body is going to react.
“Yeah, I’m very excited. It’s a good challenge, good test. Confidence, I don’t know, it’s in no-man’s land. It’s just there if I play well. I don’t know. I have to gain it all again. Start from scratch, really.”
