(August 1, 2021) ATLANTA – John Isner won his sixth Truist Atlanta Open title, part of the US Open Series on Sunday evening with a 7-6(8), 7-5 victory against fellow American Brandon Nakashima.
Isner now joins Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal as the only active men’s players to win six or more singles titles at a tour-level event. Isner’s six Atlanta titles are second only to Federer’s seven Cincinnati victories in terms of US Open Series events.
The 36-year-old Isner hit a tournament record 127 aces, including 21 in the championship match against Nakashima, who beat him last week in the Los Cabos semi-finals.
“This tournament has meant everything for my career,” Isner said in his on-court interview. “It’s absolutely amazing.”
Isner, who went to a deciding set in three of his five matches, clinched his first tour-level crown since 2019 Newport and is now 36-5 in Atlanta.
“Obviously I play a lot of tiebreakers. I’ve been on tour forever. I just think I got a little lucky today.”
“I think it will give me a lot of confidence. (In two weeks), I’ve played a lot of tennis. I’m not playing next week. I get to go home and chill out.”
Coached by Dusan Vemic, Nakashima, who played one season at the University of Virginia before turning pro, spent two weeks training with former USTA Player Development director of coaching Jose Higueras prior to this hard-court swing and is projected to rise to a career-high No. 89 in the world on Monday. Nakashima is the second rising American to reach an ATP singles final in as many US Open Series events thus far in 2021, after 20-year-old Jenson Brooksby reached the final in Newport two weeks ago.
The US Open Series continues this coming week with the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic WTA 500 in San Jose, Calif. — the world’s longest-running women’s-only professional tennis tournament, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year — and the Citi Open ATP 500 in Washington, D.C., which is welcoming Nadal for the first time. Nadal headlines a men’s field there that will include at least 14 Americans, while at least nine Americans, including 2017 US Open champion and finalist Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys, and Wimbledon sensation Emma Raducanu will lead the field in San Jose.
