Towering John Isner is sometimes mistaken for a basketball player when walking around malls in America.
The 18th-seeded Isner believes American tennis is suffering no such identity crisis.
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After wrapping up his opening-round Wimbledon win over Marcos Baghdatis, Isner said American tennis has turned the corner and is headed for big thing.
"I think tennis is such a big sport in America. So many people play it," Isner said. "American tennis fans are pretty thirsty for a player to get inside the top 10 and stay in the top 10 and do extremely well in Grand Slams. But I think us, as a country, we have sort of turned the corner."
On a day in which Isner's former doubles partner, Sam Querrey, swept Thomaz Bellucci to set up a third-round clash with reigning champion Novak Djokovic, U.S. players produced positive results.
Venus Williams, Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys, Jack Sock, Steve Johnson and Donald Young all advanced as well. Are we seeing a slight renaissance for the red, white and blue?
"I think there is a lot of players doing, you know, doing very good things," Isner said. "Three players seeded here. Sam in the third round. Jack's winning comfortably, it looks like. Steve is top 30 in the world again. We're certainly on the up, in my opinion, and we have a lot of good, young talent, as well, led by Taylor Fritz currently right now. I always tell American tennis fans I think to keep practicing patience because it will come."
American tennis' time may be coming, but when will Isner's time come at Wimbledon?
The 6'10" American famously outdueled Nicolas Mahut, 70-68, in the final set of the 2010 Wimbledon in a marathon match that earned both men international attention, and their gear from that match a place in the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
Coming off a pair of fourth-round results at the Australian Open and Roland Garros this year, Isner has yet to reach the fourth round in seven prior SW19 appearances.
While grass accentuates his serving strength, it also forces the big man to sometimes play low shots off his shoelaces and robs him of a very important element on return: Time.
"Certainly my game, it does translate pretty well in the sense that I serve well and the grass does very good things for my serve," Isner said. "But on the flip side of that, the ball stays low and skips through. Maybe being so big that makes it very tough. I have always said I prefer a hard court, a slower hard court, because I like my serve on any surface.
"The more time I have generally the better. If I play the right way and do that at a consistent level, then grass can definitely be very, very good for me."
Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve