By Erik Gudris | Thursday, July 21, 2016
The ATP 500 event in Washington D.C. often proves to be a springboard event for many players as they kick off the summer North American hard court season. But this year’s Citi Open, despite not having a top ten player in the field, feels like an event filled with players all either aiming to return or make their debuts this year inside that elite tier.
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Top seed John Isner finds himself back at the event again as he tries to hopefully finally raise the trophy that has eluded him. Isner made last year’s final before losing out to eventual champion Kei Nishikori.
Despite the many scheduling changes made by himself and other players for the Summer Games, the top American doesn’t feel like the stakes are any higher this year.
“I just treat it like any time of the year whether players aren’t here or aren’t at next week’s event. It’s a very tough field last year and I did well and it’s a very tough field this year.”
Despite his focus on this week, Isner admits he is still having a hard time forgetting last week’s loss by the U.S. Davis Cup team to Croatia in Portland, Oregon despite being ahead 2-0 early in the tie.
“You have to try and forget about it but it’s tough though because I haven’t forgotten about it to be honest," Isner said about the tie won by Croatia 3-2. "We sacrifice a lot to play Davis Cup and we did very good things in our first match and put ourselves in a perfect position in this match and, it’s hard to forget about it. It’s still in the back of my mind right now. But I’m know I’m in a tournament in the time of year that I’ve historically done well at, so I’m just focusing on myself now. I was looking forward to possibly playing another semifinal tie at home but it wasn’t to be.”
Isner booked his place in the quarterfinals on Thursday with a 7-6(3), 6-2 win over Marcos Baghdatis. Next up for Isner will be fellow American Steve Johnson. The fifth seeded Johnson didn’t face a break point while winning 6-4, 6-4 over Ryan Harrison.
Several more Americans find themselves in the quarterfinals. No. 5 seed Sam Querrey held off Alexandr Dolgopolov 7-6(5), 6-3. No. 6 seed Jack Sock defeated Dan Evans of the UK 6-1, 7-5.
No. 2 seed Gael Monfils had little trouble in his third round match against Croatia’s Borna Coric. Monfils fired down a 139 MPH ace late in the second set before closing out a 6-2, 6-3 win.
Monfils will next face Querrey in the quarterfinals.