ATLANTA: The towering John Isner won his sixth ATP Atlanta Open title on Sunday, firing 21 aces to defeat teen Brandon Nakashima 7-6 (10-8), 7-5 in an all-American final.

Sixth seed Isner captured his 16th career ATP title and joined 20-time Grand Slam winners Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic as the only active players to win an event six times.

It was 36-year-old Isner’s first ATP final since winning two years ago on Newport grass.

Nakashima, the youngest-ever Atlanta finalist at 19, reached his second career ATP final and second in as many weeks after falling to Britain’s Cameron Norrie last week at Los Cabos.

He leapt from 115th in the rankings into the top 100 for the first time on Monday.

Atlanta finals before last year’s event was wiped out due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2021