When you look at the crop of American players, you have to go down quite far to find John Isner.  Isner’s biggest result came at Legg Mason in 2007 when he got a lucky wildcard because Fernando Gonzalez dropped out at the last minute.  He used that opportunity to get to the finals, where he lost to Andy Roddick.

Isner played college tennis for the University of Georgia from 2003 to 2007, and was often ranked the top tennis player in the US.

The first thing you notice about Isner is, well, his height.  It was once considered a novelty to have a player as tall as 6’5″ playing the sport.  Any player that height was considered slow and lumbering, and had to play serve and volley.  No longer.  With players like Cilic, del Potro, and Querrey, there are now numerous players that stand at least 6’6″ and can play a baseline game.  Isner towers over them at a self-reported height of 6’9″, though some claim he may be taller.  This makes him and Ivo Karlovic (both playing Legg Mason) as the tallest players in the game.

For a guy his height, Isner is pretty shy.  When practicing, he often tilted his head down, his cap partly obscuring his face, as if he were self-conscious about the attention he gets, partly due to his humongous height.  Much like Querrey, these nice guys of tennis, long struggling to move their game forward, Isner has had a good few weeks.

Isner’s 2009 has been spotty.  He lost to del Potro in the round of 16 in Indian Wells and to David Ferrer at Miami in the round of 64 after qualifying for the event.  Since then, Isner has averaged about one match a month, frequently playing on the Challenger series, including a win over Donald Young at Tallahassee in April.  Apparently, his sporadic play was due to mononucleosis, an ailment that also affected Roger Federer.

Although Querrey has been the darling of the hardcourt circuit the last few weeks, Isner has had a decent few tournaments.  He lost to Robby Ginepri in the semifinals of Indianapolis, then lost to Carsten Ball in the quarterfinals at Los Angeles.  For a guy ranked outside the top 50 (he is currently 80), these results are pretty good.

Isner’s strategy is pretty much like any big guy.  Hit huge serves, hope to get to a tiebreak, win the tiebreak.  This is the strategy that Karlovic uses to win.  Now, these players aren’t all serve.  Karlovic couldn’t maintain his ranking if all he could do is serve big.  Karlovic has a nifty forehand and knows how to hit a volley.  Isner is perhaps better than Karlovic has a groundstroker, but Karlovic has had the better success.

Isner played Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and beat him 4-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4).  Given Tsonga’s top 10 ranking, this is quite the upset.  However, Tsonga has had tough times with big servers.  He lost to Karlovic in four sets at Wimbledon where he was left guessing where Karlovic would serve.

Up next for Isner is de Chaunac who upset Tursunov in straight sets.  de Chaunac is ranked 181 in the world and has only played 6 matches at the main tour level (apparently, the ATP tour doesn’t count Challenger series in YTD win-loss).  It is a good opportunity for Isner to make the quarterfinal.  There’s a trend for players to play their best at the same tournaments.  Witness Ginepri’s win at Indianapolis.  Ginepri has only won 3 singles titles ever.  Two of them are Indianapolis.

Legg Mason has been Isner’s best tournament by far.  With a victory over Tsonga, will 2009 be another good year for Isner?