US Open 2023 will be the last major for America's star tennis player John Isner who announced a plan to retire after the last Grand Slam of the year on Thursday, August 24. Isner, who will be playing in the 17th consecutive US Open, revealed his decision with an emotional Instagram post.
"There comes a time in every athlete's career that they have to decide to hang it up. For me, that time is now," Isner said in an Instagram post on Thursday. "I didn't come [to] this decision lightly, but I feel it is the right way to go. When I left the University of Georgia in 2007, there was no way I could have imagined playing for 17 years on the ATP Tour.
"Of course, there are countless matches I wish I could have back, but I am proud of what I was able to accomplish. The journey was nothing short of incredible."
Isner, 34, finishes his successful career as one of the best servers in Tennis history. He holds the record for most career aces, having registered 14,411 legal serves so far. He is the only tennis player to reach the 14,000-serve mark and is among only five players with over 10,000 aces. He also holds the record for most serves in a single match when he registered 113 aces against Nicholas Mahut in the first round of Wimbledon 2010.
He famously won the longest match in Tennis history when he beat Mahut in Wimbledon 2010 first round. The match was played across three days as it lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes with Isner winning in five sets and 183 games.
In Grand Slam tournaments, Isner's best finish came during the Wimbledon 2018 where he finished fourth. In his home major, he reached the quarter-final round on two occasions (2011 and 2018) and will be looking to finish higher in his last attempt in US Open 2023.
Isner was at the top of his game during 2017-18 when he received his career-best ranking of world no.8 in men's singles. He won 16 ATP Tour titles and 488 tour-level matches but was defeated in the first round of the French Open and Wimbledon this year.
