John Isner and David Nalbandian clash in the second round of the Australian Open on Wednesday.
Isner was the last standing American player at the US Open in September and he finished 2011 brilliantly, making the Paris Masters semi-finals. However if he's going to carry his country's hopes again over the next fortnight, he'll have to find his best form pretty quick after an unauspicious start to the season.
Isner got the job done on Monday, beating Aussie wildcard Ben Mitchell 6-4, 6-4, 7-6(1) but he was hardly delighted with the tennis.
"I don't really feel like I'm in any sort of match shape, or I wasn't. Now I feel like after that match I'm fine and I'm ready to go and I'm going to get stronger," he said. "It's one of those things that I've only played one match in three months, whatever, two months. I just needed to get through that just to get my breath and lungs under me. Because you can run and do bike sprints, do all that crap, but the best practice is match practice."
This will be a tough one for him. Nalbandian is a battle hardened competitor and a former semi-finalist at this event. He was looking impressive against Jarkko Nieminen before the Finn retired at 6-4, 4-2 down.
Nalbandian won 6-4, 7-6(3) when they met in Auckland last year and in the heat, he looks likely to pull off the upset here.
