John Isner had time to kill.
After a first-round loss to Ryan Harrison in Acapulco, Mexico, in late February, Isner was hanging his head. He had lost his first match in four of the five tour events he had entered in 2018, even falling in the first round at the Australian Open to 78th-ranked Matthew Ebden.
“I was losing so early in events, and when that happens your confidence gets shaken,” said Isner, 32, who had won 12 ATP tournaments in his career but had never advanced beyond the quarterfinals at a major. “I didn’t have the feeling of making it deep into a tournament, and when you lose early, you have five, six, seven days to think about it.