John Isner withdraws from Australian Open to stay with his family

Following the Delray Beach quarter-final lost to Sebastian Korda, world no. 25 John Isner announced he would skip the upcoming Australian Open that starts on February 8.

Isner will stay at home with his family during the season's first Major, never fancying the bubble's safety measures and deciding to skip all that and not travel to Melbourne. John made the Australian Open debut in 2008 and scored 15 wins from 12 trips down under, reaching the fourth round twice.

"It wasn't an easy decision at all. I thought long and hard about it, but I feel comfortable with my decision right now, and I am looking forward to getting home. At this stage of my career and life, I always had visions of traveling with my family. Of course, that wouldn't be the case for Australia this year. Understandably so, I get it. It was just a situation where I didn't want to be away from my family for that long.

I decided to stay at home. Before the pandemic, I told myself that we would travel with them as much as possible, and we were going to make it as much fun as possible on the road. When I travel in Europe, I will stay at the nicest hotels and make a nice trip out of all of it because I won't be playing tennis forever, there's no doubt about that. Certainly, right now, tennis is not the most important thing in my life.

It's my family. Me not going to Australia doesn't mean that I'm not committed, because I still am. I'm healthy, I feel good, and I'll continue to take care of my body. Once the Tour gets back from Australia, I look forward to playing as full of a season as I possibly can," John Isner said.