Is John Isner’s career coming to an end?

One of the most intriguing first round matches on Sunday at the 2023 French Open from Roland Garros came on Court 13 as Nuno Borges of Portugal beat American veteran John Isner 6-4, 5-7, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6. In your prototypical Isner match, the match went to five sets, with Borges winning 11-9 in the fifth set tiebreak. You may not know much about Borges, but Sunday’s win should not be a huge surprise. Isner doest not have his best results on clay, while Borges had beaten Dusan Lajovic of Serbia rather convincingly 6-4, 6-1 in the first round of the Italian Open earlier this month.

At 38 years old, and Isner’s wife Madison recently giving birth to their fourth child, it would not be a huge surprise if this was the final match Isner will have played at the French Open.

Losing Streak

Isner lost his last five singles matches leading up to the 2023 French Open. Things seemed to be going well for Isner in Dallas, as he reached the final, before losing 6-7, 7-6, 7-6 to Yibing Wu of China. Isner won the first set 7-4 in the tiebreak, before losing the next two sets in a tiebreak by scores of 7-3, and 14-12. Following that loss to Wu, Isner was beaten 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of Mexico to fellow American Taylor Fritz, 7-6, 6-3 in the first round of Indian Wells to fellow American Brandon Nakashima, 7-6, 7-6 in the first round of Miami to Emilio Nava, and 6-4, 7-6 in the first round of Houston to Gijs Brouwer of the Netherlands. Now it should be noted that Isner lost six of these sets in a tiebreak, but Wu, Nava, Nakashima or Brouwer are not household names when it comes to tennis.

Can Isner salvage his season?

One positive for Isner is that he has the grass court season next. This is the surface where he had his best grand slam result. That was a semifinal spot at Wimbledon in 2018.