John Isner wins Atlanta Open for 3rd straight year

Israel’s Dudi Sela, that weakened inside of the 2014 finishing to John Isner, topped Becker, from Germany, 7-5, 6-3, and Ricardis Berankis of Lithuania combined past Johnson 6-4, 6-2.

In the night quarterfinals, seventh-seeded Gilles Muller of Luxemborg beat Japan’s Go Soeda 7-5, 6-1, and fifth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus topped second-seeded Vasek Pospisil of Canada 6-4, 7-5 (5).

Fifth seed Baghdatis, in his first final since 2011, apologised to the crowd.

Top-seeded Isner won his third straight title in the state where he once starred at university, cruising past the fifth-seeded Cypriot whose movement was increasingly limited as the match wore on by what appeared to be hip or leg trouble.

Kudla was on a 17-2 streak into the match, along the way becoming the first American male since 2012 to reach the round of 16 at Wimbledon.

“I kept getting stronger and stronger”, Isner said.

Isner said he was glad to be back on his best surface after a summer stint on the clay of Europe and English grass.

The two pivot points were the first-set tiebreaker, where Isner served first and Berankis returned just two of six serves, and the only break of the match. “He started flattening out his serve. It’s not about hitting the practice courts and working hard or working on this, it’s more about doing everything I can do get my body exactly right and try to get myself feeling the best I can, and I don’t foresee any issues with that”.

The only service break of the final set came on another Kudla forehand mistake, when he sent one wide to end the match.

Isner now boasts an overall record of 19 wins in 22 matches in Atlanta and will be hoping to improve that record further still in the final.

“I played five matches this week … the good thing is that it’s nothing serious,”.

There are not many tournaments Bob and Mike Bryan haven’t won in their professional doubles career.

Margarita Gasparyan of Russian Federation won her first WTA title by beating Patricia Maria Tig of Romania, 6-3, 5-7, 6-0, in the Baku Cup final in Azerbaijan.

A third break saw Thiem take the set, and with momentum on his side he closed out comfortably to win in one hour and 26 minutes.