Davis Cup 2012: Isner beats Federer, USA 2 Switzerland 0

FRIBOURG, SWITZERLAND: There were no one predicting the result of the first day of Davis Cup matches between the USA and Switzerland. The Swiss have the home advantage, and are playing on clay. Roger Federer was supposed to beat John Isner, and Stanislas Wawrinka, despite lower ranked than Mardy Fish, was supposed to outlast the American due to his superior clay court skills. At the end of Day 1 however, Federer’s 15-match unbeaten run in Davis Cup singles came to an end and the Americans take a commanding 2-0 lead over Switzerland in their Davis Cup 2012 World Group 1st round tie.

Isner is the star of the day. The tall American added another feather in his cap by beating the 16-time grand slam champion in four sets, in clay. Isner has already etched his place in tennis history thanks to his 11+ hour win over French Nicholas Mahut at Wimbledon 2010. But, his 46 63 76(4) 62 over Federer is, as he said on-court, “the greatest win of my life”. Isner is thanking Team USA’s captain, the former French Open champion and previous world #1 Jim Courier. ‘I really owe a lot to Captain Courier,” he said. “He was on me in practice all week, told me to do all the right things, every single practice, hit all the right shots. I’m going to make mistakes, that’s how I play, but the way I played today, that’s how I need to play in all my matches.”
Earlier in the day, Mardy Fish scored a five-set win over Wawrinka, and somehow motivated Isner to come out firing during his match. Federer broke the American once to take the first set, and appeared headed for a routine victory, but Isner never wavered from his game plan. Isner was serving tremendously well, and Swiss captain Severin Luthi was hoping that Isner’s serving prowess would not last for the whole match. But it did. In the fourth set, Isner broke Federer twice to close the set and the match at 6-2.

The third set tiebreak provided some drama. Isner went up 3-0, but Federer leveled up to even the score at 4-4. Federer had a chance to nail a forward down the line to lead 5-4 but instead placed the ball into the net to go down. Isner took the next two points, and then the set to take a 2-1 set lead. His momentum carried into the fourth set where Isner’s serve never wavered. In the fifth game of the fourth set, Federer had Isner at 0-40. The American responded with three thunderous serves, two of which were aces to win the game. In the next game, Isner kept the pressure and gained a break when Federer had a forehand error while down 30-40.

Before the tie, tennis fans were expecting Switzerland to be up 2-0 after the first two singles matches. But as it is with sports, even with Federer involved, surprises happen. Even Fish wasn’t supposed to win his match against Wawrinka. Despite being #8 in the world, Fish isn’t known as a solid clay court player while Wawrinka had solid results on clay. Yet, after a marathon fifth set, it was the American who came out victorious in four hour 26 minutes, beating the Swiss with a score of 62 46 46 61 97. Both players were clearly feeling the weight of expectation, and neither played his best tennis. In the end, it was the American who reached match point, and took the first point in the tie. He finished stronger, and while Wawrinka had his chances, Fish was the one who converted on his opportunities to come out on top.

I feel pretty tired,’ said Fish afterwards, ‘but I lost a couple of long ones in Austin last year, and that feels so bad I just needed to win this one.’ Fish gave praises to the Fribourg home court crowd as being a knowledgeable and fair audience.

The Americans will try to win the tie tomorrow but like today, they will enter the doubles match as the underdogs. Though they have the world’s #1 doubles team, the other half of the Bryan twins is not in Switzerland due to a more pending issue – fatherhood. So, a Bryan twin will be pairing with young and promising Ryan Harrison to take on the defending Olympic doubles team of Federer and Wawrinka. The Swiss are expected to come out swinging as not to lose that easily in front of their home crowd, and to push their 1st round tie to Sunday, for a shot of redeeming their first day losses. If that happens, it would be Federer going against Fish – an expected win, on the first reverse singles. However, Isner would now be a favorite to beat Wawrinka if it comes to a winner take all fifth match. Stranger things have happened, but it would definitely be a grand upset if the Americans beat Federer in his home country, and playing on European clay.