Last Updated on October 30, 2021
John Isner won the tournament in Atlanta for the sixth time. The 36-year-old veteran broke his own record and became the oldest champion of the event. In the deciding match, he took revenge on Brandon Nakashima for his defeat the previous week in the Los Cabos semifinals,-7/6,7/5.
Good conditions in the summer
Why is Isner playing so well in Atlanta?
“I like the weather, I like the conditions, I like the fans,” says the now six-time champion. The American is very suited to this time of year, with 12 titles won in July and August.
Until last week, John Isner won 15 ATP titles, 13 of them in the United States, and a third of those 15 were in Atlanta. He played 40 matches at these events, not including the finals, and won 35. Only twice has John lost in this city before the final: in the semifinals in 2012 to Andy Roddick and in the 1/8 finals in 2019 to Reilly Opelka.
A familiar opponent
Brandon Nakashima is 17 years younger than the champion: Only 19. A week ago, the San Diego native reached his first final at a tournament in Los Cabos and dropped a triple to Jordan Thompson in the quarterfinals. Isner was defeated in the semi-finals, but in the decisive match, Nakashima was unable to play anything against Cameron Norrie, 2-6, 2-6. Brandon has an excellent serve, although he’s no giant at 185cm.
John admitted frankly that he knew little about Nakashima until a week ago, but the match in Los Cabos (5-7, 4-6) was very useful for him.
“Playing Nakashima, and until last week I hardly heard of him. But he thrashed me, so I immediately decided to familiarize myself with his matches.
We’ll see how it goes tomorrow. Brandon is 19 years old! That’s impossible. I was only fishing at that age, and he’s playing in the finals,” commented John before the final.
Indeed, conclusions were drawn, although the first set might have ended with the same score as the week before: the first breakpoint in the match came in the 12th game, but Isner won back the set point with a good serve, then saved one more set point on a tie-break and took the win 7-6 (10-8).
Match Statistics
| John Isner | Brandon Nakashima | |
| Aces | 21 | 12 |
| Double Faults | 1 | 3 |
| 1st Serve Percentage | 75% | 57% |
| 1st Serve Points Won | 81% | 81% |
| Break Points Saved | 3/3 | 4/5 |
| Break Points Converted | 1/5 | 0/3 |
