Top-seeded American John Isner won the 2011 Hall of Fame Tennis Championships title after beating last year’s finalist Olivier Rochus 6-3, 7-6 on Sunday. Isner became the first top seed to win this event – breaking the so-called “Casino Curse” in this ATP 250 event.
By reaching the final, Isner was forced to miss his brother’s wedding (scheduled on Saturday) in Virginia.
“I told myself that I was going to take the wild card here and the only way I was going to miss the wedding was if I got to the semi-finals,” he said in the post match interview.
“But it definitely turned out to be a great decision and I owe a huge thanks to Mark Stenning for the wild card. It’s the perfect start to the summer and I really feel like my best surface is the hard courts in the U.S. so I’m going to have a lot of confidence from this,” he added.
Belgian Olivier Rochus was still upbeat despite the defeat in the final for the second year in a row. He lost in last year’s final to Mardy Fish of United States.
“I had a very good tournament. My level was very good all week. He was better than me today. A bigger serve. I’m proud of [myself], again to be in the final here two times in a row. It’s fantastic. I think today he didn’t get the final very easy. He had to fight to the last point,” Rochus said.
