Olympic Tennis 2012: Does Best-of-3 Format Give John Isner a Medal Chance?

To call John Isner a medal hopeful might seem crazy. After all, he has never won or even reached a semifinal of a major. His last quarterfinal appearance in a Slam came in 2011. Not to mention that if he does want to get an Olympic medal, he has to get past  the world No. 1 in Roger Federer. Essentially, it doesn't look good for the 27-year-old American making his Olympic debut.

One would think that Isner won't even make it out of the quarterfinals as a head-to-head matchup with Federer awaits him there. That said, however, at his best, Isner can beat anyone and has beat anyone. With wins notched against Federer and Djokovic, Isner at times has shown to be a brilliant tennis player. Among other things, however, one of his biggest problems is a lack of consistency.

Part of Isner's problem with consistency is that he has not taken advantage of great opportunities. He was considered a dark horse with an outside shot of winning Wimbledon in 2012, but what did he do? He lost in the first round to a qualifier as he appeared to be very low energy and lackadaisical.

Isner has done this throughout his career. When he is great, he can't be beat. When he is bad, though, he is incredibly vulnerable. One of the biggest things for Isner is that he manages to display both of these in matches. Against lower ranked players, he can typically pull out tight five-set wins, but against the best in the world, he has only gotten creamed as his opponents have used his short lulls to break an otherwise near unbreakable serve.

Ah, yes, the serve, by far Isner's best weapon.

John Isner, without a doubt, has one of the best serves on the ATP Tour. Because of his 6'9" frame, he is able to put an incredible amount of power behind the serve, and in addition to the forcefulness of launching the ball over 130 MPH, he also has become a bit of a tactician when it comes to serve placement.

He also seems to come up with the biggest serves, to pull something from within him, when he is down. It is for that reason that even when losing 30 or 40 to love, Isner isn't often broken on his service games.

Over the last few years, it has been this serve that has really powered Isner into the Top 10 in the world. It has helped him to stay in matches and take them down to wire. It has enabled him to work on the other elements of his game, all the while knowing he has a reliable weapon in the serve.

Being able to hold service games and to hit aces is something that is very important to a player like Isner. His game is pretty much dependent on it because of all the top 15 players, he probably has the worst movement on the courts. He is hampered by his size in this aspect and often gives up on points in long rallies. He doesn't have particularly good net play although he has improved on this considerably in the past few years.

In addition to the serve, Isner has worked hard on improving his fitness. That was evidenced when he managed to go the distance in that incredibly long 2010 record-breaking Wimbledon final, the tournament that really made people aware of who Isner was and the kind of game he played. It also got him the nickname, "the Marathon Man."

Since that Wimbledon final, Isner has had a particular game plan that he has lived by ever since. He knows that he can't run down all of the volleys and incredible shots his opponents will hit, and he knows he can't cover as much court to win points as, say, Andy Murray can. Isner knows his strengths and knows the formula for his victory: hold serve and win in the tiebreak.

This is where a best of three serves Isner incredibly well.

Unlike some of his competitors, as I pointed out, Isner's game is suited to holding serve and then choosing his moments to pull incredible forehand winners to get the mini breaks. Because this already has him playing more time and more games than some of his other opponents, it benefits him greatly that the Olympic format is only a best of three.

He has never won a Grand Slam tournament, but he has won four career titles. He has also beaten Federer and Djokovic in 2012, both of which were done in three-set tour finals.

It is clear that getting to a medal match will be an uphill battle for Isner, but in a best-of-three, he is more suited to get to a final than at the Grand Slams. What he needs to do is first off continue to play consistently, continue to serve well and continue to not let the pressure of the situation get to him.

If he does that, he will go from someone who could never be a contender to someone who might find himself on the podium.