As John Isner's 2018 campaign comes to a close, there is little to suggest it hasn't been a career year -- or the happiest time of his life. This from a player who began the season with a dreadful slump.
"I feel good physically," Isner recently told ESPN.com. " I've had a good amount of matches, but not a crazy number because I had some big results. So I feel relatively fresh."
Ranked No. 10, Isner qualified for the ATP World Tour Finals, which begins Sunday at 9 a.m. ET on ESPN3 & The ESPN App, because No. 4 Juan Martin del Potro and No. 2 Rafael Nadal both withdrew with injuries. As former New York Yankees pitcher Lefty Gomez famously said, "I'd rather be lucky than good." At times this year, Isner has been both.
Isner will need all that luck -- and more -- when he embarks on his round-robin voyage in London on Monday at 3 p.m. ET against top-ranked Novak Djokovic. But if Isner learned one thing this year -- one that was shaping up as an annus horribilis until late March -- it is not to tie himself up into knots worrying about his results. At 6-foot-10, there's room for lots of knots.
"Right now I'm not nervous at all," Isner told his hometown Greensboro News and Record as he left for London with his wife, Madison, and infant daughter, Hunter Grace. "I've got to take the mentality of going out there and being loose. I really have nothing to lose against him. I could very well be the underdog in every single match I play. That could be a good thing for me."
No knots. That has been the game-changer for Isner, who leads the ATP in aces, with an average of 23 per match. Married in December of last year, he found himself struggling with self-generated stress at the start of the new year. Isner was approaching his 33rd birthday, eager to start a family. Suddenly, he seemed to forget how to win tennis matches. The harder he tried, the worse it became.
Isner started the year 1-6 (including first-round losses at the Australian Open and the Indian Wells Masters). But then the Miami Open happened.
On the first Wednesday of the event, Isner's coach, David Macpherson (whom Isner shares with Mike and Bob Bryan), opened his eyes to the fact that prep-wise, Isner was doing all the right things. He was just anxious and uptight in matches. Just loosen up, Macpherson advised. It's just tennis. It was a turning point. Isner's been playing with a free hand ever since.
Isner won Miami, his first career Masters 1000 title, then later in the summer made the semifinals at Wimbledon, where he lost a 6½-hour match (26-24 in the fifth set, the longest final-four match in the tournament's history) that proved the tipping point in the All-England Club's decision to adopt a fifth-set tiebreaker. Finally, during the summer swing, Isner took the title in Atlanta and reached the US Open quarterfinals.
The bedrock changes in Isner's life, most recently the September birth his daughter, helped him keep his profession in a healthy perspective. "For many years, tennis was the most important thing in my life," he said. "That was great. Nothing wrong with that. But now, tennis is a distant second. I have a beautiful wife and daughter to come home to. It's so easy now, in terms of priorities."
Isner's newfound approach, along with that 155-mph serve, will make him a menacing and disruptive force at the Tour Finals. In his first decade on the pro tour, Isner nibbled around the edges of a major breakthrough, rising as high as No. 10 as far back as 2012. He could, and did, beat anyone with wins against all three other players in his London Group (Djokovic, Alexander Zverev, Marin Cilic) at the time. Isner said he's just "happy to be part of the Finals," but things might be a little different this year.
"The past couple of years, my incentive at the end of the year was to hang in there, make sure I stay in top 20," he said. "One year I made the final in Paris and that kept me in the top 20. This year, I was playing to stay in top 10 and to qualify for London. That was a real positive."
Isner is aware that he backed into this tournament because of the withdrawals of a couple of top players. But he doesn't doubt he belongs because he'd been pretty close before. A player who relies so heavily on eking out tiebreakers knows all about living on the edge -- and the value of luck.
"I realize that this year I'm pretty fortunate to be here," Isner told reporters in London on Friday. "All that being said, I've had a very good year. I put myself in position, and it's happened. For me to do this at 33 is very satisfying for me personally."
The major caveat to Isner's quest is that -- surprisingly -- he's never won an indoor pro tournament. His own theory makes the most sense.
"It's hard to explain, but I feel that everyone I play against [in later stages] is a really good ball-striker," he said. "The near-perfect conditions indoors allows them to get more accustomed to my serve, quicker. Outdoor tennis plays into my strengths a little better."
The speed of the indoor hard court could be a critical factor. Isner knows he will have to be lucky to win the tournament.
He'll also need to be good.