I thought for sure that I was going to wait until Montreal to start posting again, but that was before I saw the John Isner show unfold in Washington, DC. While he didn’t win the title (Andy Roddick won his third Legg Mason crown by a 6-4, 7-6 score), this was truly one of the most impressive tennis performances that I’ve seen this year.

For those of you who don’t know Isner or weren’t following this week, here’s the scoop: Isner is a recent graduate from the University of Georgia, where he achieved collegiate fame by playing a large (6ft 9in) role in leading the Bulldogs to a NCAA team title. He’s been playing Futures and Challengers events recently, and had success in them this year – winning one of each. He played in his first ATP Tour level match a few weeks ago in Newport, losing to Dick Norman 6-7, 3-6.

This past week, Isner received a wild card into the Legg Mason tournament. Quickly, he made the tournament director look like a very smart man by beating Tim Henman in three sets. In this match, Isner used his cannon serve (which exceeded 140 mph at times) to keep him within striking distance, and ultimately finished the British veteran off in a third-set tiebreaker. Isner then went on to win four more matches against some stiff competition (including Benjamin Becker, Tommy Haas, and Gael Monfils) using essentially the same formula. Check out these numbers for the proof:

'At one point, Isner had a streak of 43 service games without even facing a break point'

• Isner won each of his first five matches in a third-set tiebreaker.

• At one point, he had a streak of 43 service games without even facing a break point.

These are mind-blowing service statistics, which begs the question – how did he not do well on the grass of Newport?

Isner may have felt the pressure during that maiden voyage onto the ATP Tour, but he didn’t appear to feel any of it this week. Nowhere was this more evident than during his semi-final against Gael Monfils, which entertained the Washington crowd well into the night. Monfils wasn’t at all intimidated by Isner’s serving assaults – in fact, the Frenchman gave it right back to him, firing darts of his own. Monfils actually hit four straight aces during his first service game

From then on, the match became a test to see who would blink first. This would only occur in the tiebreakers, since there were – as you might expect – no breaks of serve in the first two sets. Monfils won the first set’s decisive 13th game, and Isner took the second set’s overtime. In the third set, Monfils, sliding on the hard courts like he was on Parisian clay, managed to break Isner at 5-5, giving him the chance to serve out the match. The ecstatic Monfils erupted to the crowd in joy, but may have become caught up in the moment, as his service thereafter was a shadow of what it once was. Double-faulting twice, Isner got the break back, and in the third set tiebreaker, Isner used the momentum to his advantage to seal the match.