John Isner discusses Miami Open, Prize Money reduction and more

John Isner hasn't played much tennis in 2021 but ahead of the 2021 Miami Open, he sat down with the media to discuss several topics.

Isner has always enjoyed playing in Miami as he is a former champion who won the event in 2018. Now ahead of the 2021 edition of the event he is thrilled to be back:

"I have good memories at this tournament in 2018 at Crandon Park and very good memories in 2019 as well at the first year of the Hard Rock Stadium. I’ve always liked playing here. It’s good to be back after a two-year break which has been unfortunate for us players and it’s unfortunate that we don’t have the full Miami fans back in full force but next year we will have that”.

A couple of weeks ago Isner took to Twitter to voice his displeasure about the cut in prize money saying that the ATP is a "broken system". Asked about that he said:

"It’s not what we are a custom to but we know that the tournaments don’t have the ticketing revenue that they are used to having so our prize money is going to take a hit because of that. For the players is not so much about the prize money we don’t want to make it about that, it’s about tour structure that the players would like to have more knowledge of as to why decisions are made, again it’s not about the money, of course, we would love to play for a bigger purse but there’s a bit of uncertainty about how those numbers came into play, we’re all here to play and compete”.

Isner was also asked about a large number of pullouts from the event to which he gave a measured answer:

” It’s an unfortunate situation the tour is in right now with only one stand-alone event in America due to the fact Indian Wells is postponed so most players in Europe it doesn’t fit their schedule too well, Roger, Rafa, and Thiem and you said 31 of the top 100 are out so it’s a big commitment to come over here for just one tournament and immediately go back to Europe, for the older guys, for the three greatest players we have ever seen it probably doesn’t make sense for them, the calendar has taken a big hit as well we know that so I think the main reason why is because it’s a stand-alone event not because of the prize money and more of a schedule conflict”.

Having not played much this year he was naturally asked how he feels and he said the Acapulco appearance helped him get ready and he was feeling fine:

"I actually feel alright, I was able to play Acapulco last week and play a couple of matches, one was good, one was not so good, to be able to get a couple of matches before this tournament under my belt was pretty crucial"

He also touched upon other topics including his intention to play at clay events in Europe going forward and his intention to get vaccinated when he has the chance.