{"id":55649,"date":"2025-08-09T20:05:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T20:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/55649\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T20:05:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T20:05:06","slug":"john-isner-names-the-atp-player-who-never-reached-the-top-20-who-he-absolutely-hated-playing-against","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/55649\/","title":{"rendered":"John Isner names the ATP player who never reached the top 20 who he absolutely hated playing against"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>John Isner was able to go toe-to-toe against some of the all-time greats during his career on the ATP Tour. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/John-Isner\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Isner<\/a> played and defeated each member of the \u2018big three\u2019, earning victories over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/roger-federer\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Roger Federer<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/rafael-nadal\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rafael Nadal<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/novak-djokovic\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Novak Djokovic<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>The American also faced off against Grand Slam champions such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/andy-murray\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Andy Murray<\/a> and Stan Wawrinka, as well as some of the new generation, having had three meetings with current world number one <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/jannik-sinner\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jannik Sinner<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>There was one <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/atp\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ATP<\/a> star, however, Isner faced several times on the tour, whose name he just hated seeing in a tournament draw. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"688\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-1234662774-1024x688.jpg\" alt=\"John Isner looks on during the 2021 Canadian Open\" class=\"wp-image-117663\" \/>Photo by Vaughn Ridley\/Getty ImagesJohn Isner and Sam Querrey name the players they hated facing<\/p>\n<p>When asked on the \u2018Nothing Major Podcast\u2019 who he hated playing against, he answered: \u201cI am going to say two, [Jeremy] Chardy and Gilles Muller. I didn\u2019t necessarily dislike playing Chardy; he just always beat me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut Muller was always a nightmare because, of course, we were going to play tight matches.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think if I had to choose one I mean because of my record it has got to be Chardy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Former US player <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/Sam-Querrey\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sam Querrey<\/a> responded: \u201cFor me, it was [Adrian] Mannarino early. I was 0-4 against him. But then I flipped the switch, but he was my guy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>John Isner\u2019s head-to-head record against Gilles Muller<\/p>\n<p>Though Isner didn\u2019t like playing Gilles Muller, he managed to finish his career with a winning record of 4-2 against him. <\/p>\n<p>He won their first two bouts in 2010 and 2011, which both came in Atlanta, before beating him again in Memphis the next year. <\/p>\n<p>MatchWinner2010 Atlanta Round of 16Isner2011 Atlanta SemifinalIsner2012 Memphis Round of 32Isner2015 Australian Open Round of 32Muller2016 Queen\u2019s Round of 16Muller2017 Atlanta SemifinalIsnerJohn Isner\u2019s head-to-head record against Gilles Muller<\/p>\n<p>In their first and only clash at a Grand Slam, Muller came out on top, defeating Isner at the 2015 Australian Open in straight sets to advance to the fourth round. <\/p>\n<p>The Luxembourger followed it up with a win at Queen\u2019s in 2016, before the two faced off for a final time in 2017. <\/p>\n<p>Isner emerged victorious in their last clash, overcoming Muller in the semifinal in Atlanta. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Isner was able to go toe-to-toe against some of the all-time greats during his career on the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[1308,16571,101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-55649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-atp","tag-john-isner","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}