Isner Outlasts Federer in Paris

American John Isner outlasted world number two Roger Federer at the Paris Masters, picking up a huge 7-6(3), 3-6, 7-6(5) to reach the tournament’s third-round on Thursday.

In typical Isner fashion, the big-server won both of his sets in tiebreakers and didn’t notch a single break point throughout the match. The lone break of the match came during the second set as Federer routinely won that frame 6-3.

In the third, the two would trade holds, forcing the match into a deciding third-set tiebreaker. Isner jumped out to a 6-2 lead and had four match points, but Federer saved the first three to trim the deficit to 5-6.

On his fourth match point though, Isner hit a slicing serve that Federer’s backhand was unable to return, giving the American the victory.

“It’s tough going out of a tournament without losing your serve, but that’s what happened,” said Federer afterwards. “I’m not sure what I could have done differently.”

 “He’s an incredible player, obviously. My favorite player and the greatest of all-time, in my opinion,” said Isner. “It was a huge win for me. I’m very proud.”

Isner will look to build on this win when he takes on Spaniard David Ferrer in the quarterfinals.

Ferrer fought back from a set down to upend Grigor Dimitrov on Thursday, beating the Bulgarian 6-7(4), 6-1, 6-4 to advance to the final eight. Ferrer converted five of his 10 break point chances in the final two sets to turn the tide in this match and improve to 5-1 in his career against Dimitrov.

World number one Novak Djokovic rolled into the quarterfinals as well on Thursday, moving past France’s Gilles Simon 6-3, 7-5.

 Djokovic won despite the fact that he had his serve broken five times in the two sets, but converted seven break points of his own to win in straight sets.

“I returned well the entire match,” said Djokovic. “I didn’t give him too much room to improve his game. I feel like I have a good chance from the baseline against anyone.”

Djokovic will take on Tomas Berydch next. The fifth-seeded Czech downed France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday.