John Isner knows how to fight.

There are clearly limitations to his game.  He doesn’t cover ground very well.  He looks tired when matches run long.  But he relies on his serve to bail him out of danger spots.

Nalbandian took the first set 64, then there was a big exchange of breaks in the second set, which ended up Isner’s way.  Nalbandian then got two more breaks to take the third set 62.  At this point, Isner was struggling to break Nalbandian so he realized he had to hold serve every time he was up which is something he’s used to with his style of game.  The two stayed on serve to the tiebreak which Isner won 75.  The fifth set stayed even though Nalbandian had more chances to get into Isner’s game.

Late in the fifth, Isner appeared to be cramping and was struggling to serve and to fetch balls.  At 8-all, 30-40, Isner hit a big first serve.  The linesman called it out, but the chair umpire overruled.  Nalbandian then called for a challenge, but the chair umpire said it was too late.  Nalbandian vigorously complained saying he challenged in a reasonable amount of time.  In the meanwhile, Hawkeye said the serve was out.  Nalbandian asked for a referee, but the referee sided with the chair umpire.  Isner managed to get out of that service game and held for 9-8.

Nalbandian then got up 30-0 on his serve, but Isner played some powerful shots and then chased a drop shot down for match point.  Nalbandian threw another drop shot at match point which Isner chased down, and there was a fast net exchange that Isner eventually won and took to win the fifth set, 10-8.

To Nalbandian’s credit, once he lost, he was pretty gracious and left the court, though announcers said he would probably be upset once he saw the result.  However, there’s usually a Davis Cup match shortly after the Australian Open and that’s still a big priority for Nalbandian.

Both Nalbandian and Isner knew what this was like.  Last year, Isner lost a five setter 9-7 in the fifth against Cilic while Nalbandian won a five setter against Hewitt 9-7 in the fifth.

Up next for Isner is Feliciano Lopez who had a fairly comfortable match.

Final score: 46 63 26 76 10-8.

Roger Federer was scheduled to play on Hisense Arena, the third stadium, for the first time in years.  However, his opponent, Andreas Beck hurt his back and withdrew which meant Federer didn’t have to play off Rod Laver Arena.

Alexandr Dolgopolov played a second five setter in a row, beating Kamke in five.

Tomas Berdych sailed through two sets against Rochus who was runner up in Auckland and had to qualify so he had played a ton of matches.  Rochus managed to push the third set to a tiebreak, but Berdych won it.  Final score: 61 60 76.  Berdych is the smoothest looking player when his game is on and just oozes effortless power, even more than Federer.

del Potro had a straight set win over Kavcic, and was feeling better about his match.

Mardy Fish struggled keeping balls on the court against Alejandro Falla.  Falla plays tight into the baseline and got lots of balls back making Fish’s life difficult.  He won 76 63 76, and is the first top seed to fall.

Donald Young struggled against Lukas Lacko who just hit a bit bigger than him and won in four sets.

Kevin Anderson won his match over Stakhovsky in four sets.