Tennis News – Isner serves Murray out of Wimbledon in second round, Raducanu also exits

By Ricky Dimon

It was a rough Wednesday at Wimbledon for the British faithful, as both Andy Murray and Emma Raducanu crashed out in the second round. After Raducanu lost 6-3, 6-3 to Carolina Garcia, Murray fell victim to John Isner’s big hitting in a 6-4, 7-6(4), 6-7(3), 6-4 setback.

Although both Brits were favored, neither result was overly surprising. It can happen, of course, whenever Isner is on the other side of the net and in a groove on serve–which was exactly the case against Murray. The 6’10” American served at 73 percent, fired 36 aces compared to just two double-faults, and saved the only two break points that he faced.

“When I had my opportunities, he served extremely well and didn’t give me lots of chances,” Murray lamented. “When I did get them, I didn’t get many looks at second serves on important moments on his serve.

“I’ve played many times against those players and found ways to get enough balls back, make enough returns to turn the matches, whether that’s been against (Ivo) Karlovic, Isner, (Milos) Raonic…those sorts of guys, I’ve done well against them.”

Well!?!? Murray literally could not have been any better against Isner heading into Wednesday’s showdown. He led the head-to-head series 8-0 and got broken a grand total of one time in those eight matches. This time around, however, it was Isner who was untouchable on serve–in addition to pocketing two unexpected breaks of the Murray serve.

“I don’t have too many weapons at my disposal to try anything different,” Isner said when asked if he tried to change anything given his winless history against Murray. “I have one big weapon, right? I need that to be working. So [the strategy] is always go after my serve, hold serve as best as I can–which I did out there tonight–and see what I can do after that.

“Yeah, I was 0-8 against Andy, but we’ve had a lot of close matches. I’ve had opportunities; just haven’t been able to close the door. Tonight I guess I was able to.”

And thus Murray was unable to save the day following Raducanu’s ouster. Unlike the 35-year-old Scot, the 19-year-old and reigning U.S. Open champion did not even manage to be competitive. Garcia struck more than twice as many winners as Raducanu (25 to 12) to power her way into the third round. 

It’s not entirely over the British contingent at the 2022 Championships, but Wednesday struck a significant blow.

Ricky contributes to10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on twitter at @Dimonator.