Top seed Isner reaches quarters in Newport
Top seeded John Isner won through to the quarter-finals of the $500,000 Hall of Fame Championships by beating France's Arnaud Clement in straight sets.
Top seeded John Isner won through to the quarter-finals of the $500,000 Hall of Fame Championships by beating France's Arnaud Clement in straight sets.
Isner took the second round match 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 by winning 80 percent of his first serve points at the grass court ATP tournament on Wednesday.
The 6ft 9in, 26-year-old Isner also used his booming serve to hammer 11 aces.
"When I get off to an early break, that's when I feel like I'm in control," he said. "I feel like I play my best when I'm ahead. It didn't happen in the first set, but it did in the second."
Isner seized control when he broke Clement in the seventh game of the second set to take a 4-3 lead after the Frenchman double-faulted on the final point.
Isner will next face American compatriot Alex Bogomolov in the semi-finals.
In other second round matches on Wednesday, wild card Denis Kudla upset second-seeded Grigor Dimitrov, 6-1, 6-4; and No. 8 seed Tobias Kamke beat Donald Young 7-6 (3), 6-4.
Sixth-seeded Olivier Rochus got past Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 7-6 (7/3), Matthew Ebden beat Matthias Bachinger 2-6, 6-4, 6-4; Edouard Roger-Vasselin defeated Jimmy Wang 7-5, 6-4; and Michael Yani advanced when Germany star Tommy Haas retired with a lower back injury behind 2-5 in the first.