John Isner is in third round action at the 2011 US Open against Alex Bogomolov Jnr.
Isner is in the form of his life after a superb summer season and he's dealt well with a couple of dangerous opponents so far. He had a real tough first round against Marcos Baghdatis, battling through in four before seeing off former semi-finalist Robby Ginepri 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday night.
Bogomolov Junior was once rated as the next big thing for American tennis a decade ago but instead he's spent most of his career as a journeyman on the challenger circuit. Isner admitted in his press conference that it's so tough to break out from that level.
"Fortunately for me I was able to when I first started my ranking shot up really high because of the D.C. tournament," he said. "You know, after six months of play, I was top 100 in the world. But, you know, at the beginning of 2008 I sort of regressed a little and I had to go back down to the challengers, because I ended 2008 ranked 140 something, thereabouts. I knew I had to kinda go back to the drawing board, and I did. I took my lumps in 2008 and I played some challengers, end of 2008 and beginning of 2009 and started winning a lot of matches."
"It's a very, very tough level to get out of. You see guys all the time just essentially stuck there, and that's where they are, ranked 180 to 280 in the world or something. It's not glamorous. Fortunately for me, I'm glad I'm out of that stage. I hope to never, you know, get back down there."
Bogomolov is enjoying an exceptional season by his standards but Isner has won all three of their past matches, beating him in straight sets in Miami and Newport this year.
