ATP News: Isner Downs Blake, Georgia Duo Upsets Defending Champs

Last night's Atlanta Tennis Championships featured match showcased two of the top American players on the ATP World Tour with the third seed John Isner facing-off against friend and doubles partner James Blake.  

The two players are incredibly close friends and in a press conference earlier in the week, Isner told reporters that he and Blake actually live about a half a mile away from each other, and he drives his golf cart to Blake’s house to practice multiple times a week.

There are no secrets on the court between the two. Both players know their opponents games, and the match would be determined by which player was able to execute the best on that particular day. However, Isner was able to benefit from the packed Stadium Court of Georgia faithful cheering him on and giving him the edge to come through in the end.

Isner was able to get the upper hand, but the two will return on court together as doubles partners Thursday night.  

Both players served big and used their powerful attacking games to dictate points. The match was decided by which player had the higher consistency and could come up with a big shot on the pressure points.

In the end, despite Blake’s best efforts, Isner was able to triumph over his friend and doubles partner 7-6(8), 6-7(3), 7-5.  

Following the featured singles match was a doubles matchup highlighting Georgia’s Drake Bernstein and Georgia Tech’s Kevin King that proved to be the tournament’s most surprising upset.

They faced last year’s doubles champions and top seed in the 2011 Atlanta Tennis Championships, Rajeev Ram and Scott Lipsky. The college duo from rival universities paired together for the first time, playing in front of the two university’s fan bases created a vibrant environment.

In an unusual situation, the two sides were both cheering for the same team. King and Bernstein made the most of their wild card, playing almost perfect doubles en route to the biggest upset of the tournament, knocking out the defending champions 7-6(3), 6-3.

Results from Wednesday's matches:

ATLANTA TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS - ATLANTA, USA
$ 531,000.00
JULY 16 - JULY 24, 2011

RESULTS - JULY 20, 2011
Men's
Singles - Second Round
[2] K Anderson (RSA) d M Russell (USA) 61 75
[3] J Isner (USA) d J Blake (USA) 76(8) 67(3) 75
Y Lu (TPE) d [Q] M Matosevic (AUS) 36 61 62
G Muller (LUX) d [WC] R Ginepri (USA) 76(6) 26 62

Men's
Doubles - First Round
[WC] D Bernstein (USA) / K King (USA) d [1] S Lipsky (USA) / R Ram (USA) 76(3) 63
[4] C Fleming (GBR) / R Hutchins (GBR) d G Dimitrov (BUL) / R Sweeting (USA) 75 67(5) 10-6
M Bachinger (GER) / F Moser (GER) d [WC] R Harrison (USA) / D Young (USA) 46 76(3) 10-6
R Berankis (LTU) / X Malisse (BEL) d N Mahut (FRA) / G Muller (LUX) 46 64 10-5

Thursday's Order of Play

STADIUM COURT start 4:00 pm
[4] X Malisse (BEL) vs R Harrison (USA) 
L Hewitt (AUS) vs [Q] R Ram (USA) 

Not Before 7:00 PM
[1] M Fish (USA) vs N Mahut (FRA) 
A Bogomolov Jr. (USA) / M Ebden (AUS) vs J Blake (USA) / J Isner (USA)

COURT 1 start 4:00 pm
[4] C Fleming (GBR) / R Hutchins (GBR) vs I Kunitsyn (RUS) / M Russell (USA) 
T Ito (JPN) vs [8] S Devvarman (IND) 
R Berankis (LTU) / X Malisse (BEL) vs S Devvarman (IND) / T Huey (PHI) - After Suitable Rest

Editor's note: Ron Cioffi, USTA Southern Director of Communications, provided the information for this report.