NEW YORK(AP) It all came down to John Isner.
Against 10th-seeded Fernando Verdasco, he didn't stand a chance.
His aggressive serve-and-volley game neutralized by Verdasco's counterpunches, the 55th-ranked Isner was bounced from the U.S. Open on Monday, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
His loss means there will be no American man in the quarterfinals for the first time in history of a tournament that started 128 years ago.
Isner had already taken out America's best player, No. 5 Andy Roddick. By the time Isner stepped on court Monday, he was the last of 18 U.S. men in the field.
That list included the seeded (No. 21 James Blake and No. 22 Sam Querrey) the long shots (No. 920 Chase Buchanan and No. 1370 Devin Britton), the inspirational stories (Taylor Dent and his recovery from back surgery) and the fun ones (Jesse Witten and his band of hotel-crashing buddies).
All gone.
Isner's signature win over Roddick came largely because he was able to serve at 130 mph and rush the net, his 6-foot-9 frame too big to pass. He played 67 points at net against Roddick and won 42.
Verdasco had his passing game dialed in, though. Isner only tried coming to net 27 times and won barely more than half of them. At 2-2, 30-all in the fourth set, he dumped a low volley into the net, then followed by yanking a backhand long. That was the break Verdasco needed, and the Spaniard served out the match from there.
Maybe I could have done it a little bit better today,'' Isner said when asked about his net game.But he, for the most part, just had me on the run. I didn't really stand a chance.''
So much in the first week of the tournament had been made of Querrey's good summer - he won the U.S. Open Series - Dent's crowd-pleasing antics and the nice run by Isner. The 24-year-old from the University of Georgia wasn't viewing his match as a referendum on America's progress, however.
I wanted to keep it going,'' he said.If you would have told me I'd be the last American, only one American make the final 16, I probably would have thought maybe one or two more would have.''