Tennis Atlantic

ATL 2013 Finals Preview

Day 8. The end of the 2013 BB&T Atlanta Open is upon us with 2 more matches on tap: the singles and doubles final on stadium court, starting at 3:00 p.m.

Kevin Anderson and John Isner will meet for the 9th time as ATP professionals, and if you include college tennis, it will be at least the 10th meeting between the two big, lanky servers.
6-8 and 6-10.
27 and 28.
21 and 22 in the world.
South African and American.

It’s quite hard to parse between the pair, but they are easily spotted in a crowd.

Isner is 5-3 career against Anderson (6-3 if you include the NCAA final years ago), and won their meeting this year in Delray Beach, though at the time Anderson was just returning from an injury layoff. Kev and John split meetings last year, both on hardcourts and as expected. All but one of their career matches feature at least one tiebreak. Big servers with big forehands, who can at times volley adeptly because of their height.

Anderson has dropped two sets this week, but was never in danger of losing any of his matches, while Isner also dropped two, but was living much more on the edge in all three of his matches, though he was certainly clutch to pull through.

The key to this one will be first serve percentage and groundstroke errors.

Both Anderson and Isner can absolutely crank on the forehand side when they connect, but whoever hits less shanks and can put pressure on their opponents serve a little should prevail. Furthermore, Anderson and Isner have both been exceptional at holding serve from 0-30, 15-40, or even 0-40 down this week, and whoever can close when they get those chances should prevail.

Lastly I expect at least 1, if not 2 or even 3 tiebreaks, and thus stepping up in those may be the ultimate key.

As a local favorite and an American, Isner will have huge fan support, but Anderson is a likable player with a small but noticeable contingent of fans, and I expect the crowd to at least respect him, thus not perhaps making it a huge factor.

As for a pick, I like Anderson in two sets, as I think he can force Isner into pressure situations more than Isner can force him, and he has been just a bit more consistent on groundstrokes while serving about the same as Isner.

In the doubles final, Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Igor Sijsling will try to do better than their final last week and take the title over Colin Fleming and Johnny Marray.

Both teams seem to gel well together and have played fine. Fleming and Marray are full-time professional doubles players, while ERV/Sijsling are singles players moonlighting on the doubles circuit.

Such final meetings are almost always entertaining. As for a pick, I like ERV/Sijsling.

—Steen Kirby