It’s the hotly anticipated match of the first week. Federer v. Isner: The giant of tennis versus the boy giant.
It’s not really a matter if Isner can beat Federer — no one thinks that — but about how good a fight the young American can put up. Everyone seems to agree that Isner could be a headache.
“John probably has a game that can make Roger a little bit more uncomfortable than most people just because you can go game sometimes without hitting a ball,” said Andy Roddick when asked about the match.
Federer has had problems against tall players. In Montreal, he needed two tie-breaks to beat the 6’10 hungry Croatian Ivo Karlovic in a match where he never saw a break point.
And from what he’s seen of Isner, he’s been impressed.
“I saw he had a good serve,” said Federer. “He’s got a good second serve too. It’s going to be interesting to see how I handle that because the trajectory of a big guy like this is always different…I thought he hit the ball pretty well, but you never know until you face him.”
