Monaco Defeats Isner in Houston Final at BetLM

Monaco Defeats Isner in Houston Final

HOUSTON — Juan Monaco indi­cated he will be a threat to the big-name play­ers at the upcom­ing French Open by claim­ing his sec­ond clay court title of the sea­son with vic­tory in the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships.

The 28-year-old Argen­tine defeated Amer­i­can John Isner 6–2, 3–6, 6–3 in the final.

Monaco rushed through his post-match media com­mit­ments, because he had to catch a flight to Europe and be in Monte Carlo in time for his match there on Tuesday.

“No time to rest,” Monaco said. “I’m just going to make a quick warmup, and then I’m going to go on the court. My energy is OK. I’ve played a lot of hours here (in Hous­ton). I don’t need to prac­tice, I just need to focus on the match and do my best.”

Isner would’ve moved up to No. 8 in the rank­ings with a vic­tory, but Monaco broke Isner’s serve three times to hand the Amer­i­can his first clay loss of the year.

The 26-year-old Isner dropped to 7–1 on clay in 2012, and he acknowl­edged after his semi­fi­nal win over Feli­ciano Lopez that he was play­ing on tired legs. He arrived in Hous­ton straight from Monte Carlo, where he won two clay matches to help the U.S. defeat France in Davis Cup play.

Isner felt fatigued in the first set, and Monaco took the early lead.

“It took me a lot to get warmed up and get me engaged in the match,” Isner said. “I was pretty tired and kind of slug­gish at the beginning.”

The vic­tory on Sat­ur­day moved Isner up to No. 9 in the rank­ings, and he became the top Amer­i­can, pass­ing Mardy Fish. He already has wins this year over Novak Djokovic and Roger Fed­erer, but dropped to 20–7 this year overall.

“Very good strides this year, but it still could be bet­ter,” Isner said. “I’ve just got to keep work­ing. I know there’s room to improve in my game.”

Monaco, mean­while, improved to 11–2 on clay this year. He came in ranked 16th and his first vic­tory in Amer­ica will move up him to No. 14, match­ing a career high.

Healthy again after cop­ing with ankle and wrist injuries over the pre­vi­ous three years, Monaco feels like he’s close to top form, just in time for the height of the clay sea­son. He’s won four of his five career titles on clay, includ­ing a vic­tory at Vina del Mar in February.

“This is a great moment in my career,” Monaco said. “I’m very happy about that. Now, I have to keep work­ing. This sea­son is just the start. I have the clay sea­son in Europe, which is very impor­tant for me.”

The 6-foot-9 Isner won 44 con­sec­u­tive ser­vice games in the tour­na­ment before Monaco broke him twice in the first set to take con­trol. Isner had eight aces in the match, but also had five dou­ble faults.

The play­ers con­tended with a stiff breeze that blew into their faces when they played at the north end of the court.

Monaco coped with the wind bet­ter, and he had Isner down 30–40 in the eighth game of the third set. When Isner missed a back­hand wide, Monaco bent at the waist and clenched his fist, know­ing he would serve for the match.

“It was really windy,” Monaco said, “but I didn’t think about that. I just had to keep play­ing, to keep mov­ing my legs.”

Monaco sprayed a fore­hand wide on the first match point, but caught Isner com­ing into the net and passed him with a pin­point back­hand down the line. Monaco dropped to his knees and clenched both fists as Isner trudged off the court with his head down.

“The final set, it was a bat­tle,” Monaco said. “We fought to the last point.”

BetLM's sports betting news features unique sports betting articles as well as current sports news compiled from leading wire services. This arti­cle was dis­trib­uted by Syn­di­cated Sports news wire and aggre­ga­tion ser­vice, For more ten­nis news see: Monaco defeats Isner in Hous­ton final.

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