John Isner, players at U.S. Open are ready for some football
NEW YORK — For No. 1-ranked American John Isner, the U.S. Open each year also means the beginning of his favorite part of the season: Football.
“Whenever the Open rolls around, that means football is right around the corner, too,” a smiling Isner told Paste BN Sports after his first-round win Tuesday. “It’s the best. Both college and pros.”
Isner is a Georgia alum and North Carolina native, meaning his love for both the Georgia Bulldogs and Carolina Panthers is unfettered. His Twitter account is littered with football opinions and shout outs – he even gets an occasional “good luck!” from the Panthers themselves.
The No. 13 seed at the Open isn’t alone in his pigskin admiration. Rising American star Madison Keys is a fervent supporter of the New Orleans Saints (as is Ryan Harrison), Madison Brengle, into her first U.S. Open third round, is a Dallas Cowboys diehard fan, and Nicole Gibbs, an Ohio native, is all about the Cleveland Browns.
“I’m freaking obsessed with football,” said Gibbs, who plays her second round match Thursday. “I was streaming games all last fall in the middle of the night when I was jet-lagged. It was perfect.”
After his loss at the U.S. Open a year ago, American Steve Johnson made a road trip to the Stanford-USC game. Johnson was a four-time NCAA champion for the Trojans.
Serena and Venus Williams have a partial stake in the Miami Dolphins. In Miami last year Serena wore a Dolphins-colored ensemble en route to the tournament title.
“I can’t wait,” said Isner of the approaching season. He admitted to middle-of-the-night streaming when he’s abroad each October, but never the night before a match. “I probably shouldn’t vocalize that too much since I should be sleeping. But I have to watch if the Dogs are playing… or the Panthers.”
It’s not just the Americans that love the sport, either: Juan Monaco, from Argentina, and Great Britain’s Laura Robson are professed NFL fans, too.
“I kind of take some shots at [Isner]” for being a Panthers fan, joked Keys, who is into the third round, as well. “One of their big players got hurt the other day, so he was pretty devastated about that… [And] I was pretty pumped about that.”
American Jessica Pegula, who lost in the second round Tuesday, is a Buffalo native and daughter of Terry Pegula, the new owner of the Bills.
“The Americans get me,” Pegula said. “A lot of the European girls have no idea what I’m talking about, but I’ve turned [fellow American] Samantha Crawford into a Bills fan. She didn’t have a team, so I said, ‘You’re a Bills fan now.’”
PHOTOS: U.S. Open