Roberto Bautista Agut gained revenge for his 2019 quarter-final loss to John Isner on Tuesday at the Miami Open presented by Itau.
The Spaniard saved match point at 5/6 in a final-set tie-break to eliminate the 2018 champion 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(7) in two hours and 18 minutes. Bautista Agut entered his fifth ATP Head2Head encounter against Isner with a 1-3 record, but he played aggressively with his forehand in the closing stages to improve to 11-7 this season.
“John is a good friend on the Tour. He always makes matches difficult,” said Bautista Agut. “He has a very big serve and a lot of power from baseline with the forehand. It makes it always difficult.”
Across seven appearances at the tournament’s previous venue in Key Biscayne, Bautista Agut reached the Round of 16 on two occasions. Since the tournament moved to Hard Rock Stadium in 2019, the 32-year-old has advanced to the quarter-finals in each edition of the event (2019, ’21).
Bautista Agut is the first player to win a tie-break against Isner at the venue. The 6’10” American entered the match decider with an 11-0 tie-break record at the home of the Miami Dolphins.
The Spanish No. 2 took advantage of missed first serves in the first set. Bautista Agut rushed Isner with aggressive second-serve returns and won 64 per cent of points (7/11) behind the American’s second delivery to take the opener in 31 minutes.
Isner responded well in the second set, as he rushed his opponent into errors with deep groundstrokes and fired a backhand winner down the line to gain the only break of the set. With no service breaks in the decider, Isner charged into a 3/0 lead in the final-set tie-break and he held a match point at 6/5. Bautista Agut trusted his forehand to escape danger and, on his second match point, he used the shot to force Isner into an error and clinch victory.
“I think I played a brilliant set [in] the first set, and then with John you feel always under pressure,” said Bautista Agut. “He [broke me] with [a] backhand down the line and then the match changed. It was a really tough fight until the last point.”
The nine-time ATP Tour titlist is through to his third quarter-final of the season, following runner-up finishes in Montpellier (l. to Goffin) and Doha (l. to Basilashvili). Bautista Agut also led Spain to last month’s ATP Cup semi-finals (l. to Italy).
Standing between Bautista Agut and a first Miami semi-final will be top seed Daniil Medvedev or American Frances Tiafoe. The World No. 12 owns a 2-0 ATP Head2Head advantage against Medvedev and won his only previous meeting against Tiafoe.
Did You Know?
As a result of Isner’s loss, there will be a first-time champion in Miami this year.