ESPN couldn’t have asked for a better pair of finals this past weekend.  After “The Body” issue featured two tennis players, John Isner and Aga Radwanska, made it to the finals of Atlanta and Stanford on the same weekend.

For Isner, Atlanta is the tournament that vexes him.  Twice, he’s been runner up to Mardy Fish, once a semifinal loss to Roddick.  This is the state where Isner went to college, and became an ATP event once Indianapolis moved to Atlanta.

And, as the announcers were quick to remind us, this is the tallest final ever, featuring 6’10” John Isner (he admits he’s this tall now) and 6’8″ Kevin Anderson, both products of the American college tennis scene (Isner at Georgia, Anderson at Illinois).  This has been Anderson’s best year so far, with better than expected results on clay, mostly due to improved ground strokes.

Despite this, many felt this would be tiebreaks galore.  Isner is already notorious for breaking serve rarely, and so he’s had to build his game around holding serve.  You would think this would be easy for a tall guy like Isner, and while it may be easier, hitting big serves when you need it is still a tall mental order.

Honestly, Kevin Anderson played better throughout this match.  He had more chances to break, did better off the ground, but he couldn’t come up with the big points when he needed.  The lanky South African, who constantly showed his abs as he toweled off with his shirt, won the first tiebreak comfortably, but the two held serve to a second set tiebreak where Isner got ahead early and pushed it to a third set.

In the third set, Anderson has three separate occasions to break, including a 0-40 opportunity, and two break points late.  It was to no avail as Isner either banged a few good serves, or avoided making errors that put him in the hole in the first place.  By the time Anderson failed to break, his confidence seem rattled.  Isner ran around a backhand to surprise Anderson, then got another mini-break, and finally saw Anderson net a backhand as he attempted to come to net.

It goes to show you that if you have a big serve, and defend it well, you’re never out of a match.  Anderson should feel proud that he kept himself in the match with chances to win, but he still needs to work on being mentally tough and giving away nothing.