Isner, Federer to play for Miami Open title

Whoever lifts the Miami Open championship trophy will be rather familiar with the experience.

John Isner and Roger Federer each won their semifinal match on Friday, setting up a match between the tournament's last two champions on Sunday in Miami Gardens, Fla.

Isner, a 33-year-old American seeded seventh in the event, advanced through first, outlasting qualifier Felix Auger-Aliassime 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4). Isner recorded 21 aces while dispatching the 18-year-old Canadian in 1 hour, 53 minutes.

Federer, the 37-year-old Swiss star who is seeded fourth, then swept Denis Shapovalov, another teenage Canadian, 6-2, 6-4 in a match that lasted just 74 minutes.

Federer becomes the first player to reach 50 ATP Masters 1000 finals, breaking a tie with Spain's Rafael Nadal.

Looking ahead to facing hard-serving Isner, Federer said in his on-court postmatch interview, "I honestly love big servers, to watch them, (to see) if they're going to ace every second or third point. For me, that's exciting because it's like a penalty shootout in (soccer), it's just in tennis.

"I'll be the goalie on Sunday. I'll try my very best. I'll try to get as many balls back as possible."

Federer, who has won 5 of 7 matchups with Isner, added, "I know what to expect -- that he will not miss many serves. He's got an amazing serve. One of the best in the game, forever. It's really hard to play against him."

Isner, currently ranked ninth in the world, has won just one ATP Masters 1000 title, and it came in this event last year. Overall, he has won 14 career titles.

"It's amazing," Isner told the crowd after beating Auger-Aliassime. "I said before the tournament the chances were I would not defend my title. I'm very, very happy."

Auger-Aliassime was the youngest man to reach the semifinals in the event's 35-year history. However, he couldn't solve Isner's serve and saw his strong tournament run end.

"I just felt like, I don't know, the nerves got to me a little," Auger-Aliassime said. "I wasn't able to do like all the other matches and just focus on what I had to do, and it really got to me too hard."

As for Federer, No. 5 in the world rankings, he will be looking for his fourth career Miami Open title. Facing a player barely half his age, the 37-year-old Federer dominated the 19-year-old Shapovalov throughout the match.

While Shapovalov had one more ace than Federer (3-2), the more experienced player committed only one double fault to Shapovalov's five, won 91 percent of his first serve points and 74 percent of his second serve points, and dominated Shapovalov in the return game (30 total return points won to eight for his opponent).

--Field Level Media