Steve, we know who the players of the year are, but why don’t you have a category for Overhyped Player of the Year? Maybe that’s because it would be John Isner, and it would make you American journos look bad for saying he would win the French Open. What is it with Isner that makes you guys overrate him, the same way did with Mardy Fish last year? I wonder...—Matthew
Isner-hate, or at least Isner-aversion, has been one of the stranger sub-themes of 2012 around here. I can see not loving to watch him play, and especially not loving to watch him play 18-16, let alone 70-68, fifth sets. But I’ve been surprised by how little respect his game gets, to the point where his detractors don’t like to hear anything positive said about him. It’s even worse, of course, when those positive words come from an American writer, who is obviously “hyping” him, because...because...well, because that’s what American writers do (never mind why we would bother, or what we would get out of it).
It’s true that Isner turned out to be one of the season’s disappointments, particularly through the all-important summer months. His performances at the last three Grand Slams were awful, and they were likely the catalyst for him parting ways with coach Craig Boynton last week. Boynton stated the obvious to my colleague Matt Cronin on this site: Isner has to return serve better and avoid long matches early at the majors. He also said that John gets too down when he doesn’t return decently, unlike his fellow big server Pete Sampras, who waited patiently for that one break per set and didn’t let a few bad return games bother him. Whatever changes he makes with new coach Mike Sell, three-out-of-five will never be Isner’s forte.
Still, Isner did have a big start to the year, beating Federer and Djokovic, making the Indian Wells final, cracking the Top 10 for the first time, and beating Tsonga to send the U.S. to the Davis Cup semis. There would have been optimism about the future of any player, no matter what country he was from, who did all of those things over the course of five months (though no one that I read picked him to win the French). Now we know that even a few big Isner wins don’t mean he’s going to keep that level up forever, or even for very long. Boynton seemed to understand Isner’s problems; maybe Sell will be able to figure out how he can overcome them.
As far as American writers hyping their countrymen, it is true that a journalist for, say, USA Today or the New York Times will cover U.S. players, because that’s who will be of interest to their readers—i.e., general sports fans in this country. The same is true for writers from every nation. British journalists root openly for Andy Murray; the Swiss support Roger Federer. I don’t mind that, and I understand that a Murray win means that more eyeballs will be on their stories. But I’ve never felt that way while watching U.S. players, in part because my job isn’t like that.
TENNIS.com is based in New York, but it has a substantial international audience. That means I get to write about players from all over, without ignoring developments among the Americans. Which suits me, because I’ve always been a fan of the game as a whole, rather than of the American game in particular. I don’t love hearing about the U.S.’s decline over and over, but I don’t have a stake in this country’s players succeeding, either. I was happy for the U.S. Davis Cup team when they won in 2007, but no happier than I was for the Serbs in 2010 or the Czechs this year.
You might think I hyped Isner because I’m American; I did, mistakenly, pick him to make the U.S. Open semis, because I thought he had a good draw. But I also picked Tomas Berdych, just as mistakenly, to win the bronze medal at the Olympics. Was I “hyping” an overrated Berdych, who went out in the first round? You might have reason for suspicion, Matthew. I did once spend a week in Prague.