Querrey, Isner take first step to meeting tall order

If the sky is the limit and a fellow is 6-9 - or even 6-6 - does that make things easier?

America's tallest tennis pros Wednesday began reaching for high expectations lately dangled for them in a sport no longer dominated by their fellow citizens. Both 6-9 John Isner and 6-6 Sam Querrey won their first-round U.S. Open matches, but not without the awareness that success takes time.

Isner, of course, knows about time, having played - and won - the longest match in history this summer at Wimbledon, that three-day, 11-hours-on-court slog over France's Nicolas Mahut. And meanwhile he and Querrey (his doubles partner, though they chose not to play doubles here) are involved in the larger process of breaking into the tennis elite.

"You definitely have to learn," Querrey said. At No. 22, equaling his age, Querrey dispatched his recent training partner, 20-year-old Stanford student Bradley Klahn, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, in the afternoon before the 25-year-old Isner, ranked 20th, knocked out No. 87 Frederico Gil of Portugal, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4.

"I remember the first time I player Roger [Federer]," Querrey said. "I was 18. He was, like, amazing.

"It was in Miami. It was a night match. I didn't know I was gonna lose, but I assumed I was gonna lose. But the more I played, you know, Roger and Rafa [Nadal] and Andy [Roddick] and practiced with them, and you take an occasional set off them in practice and take a set here or two in a match and beat a top-10 guy, then you kind of start to get the belief."

Querrey is the only man on tour to win a tournament on three different surfaces this year. But his play leveled off in Open tuneup events and an obvious rule seemed to apply: One doesn't hand a guy a doctor's manual and promptly tell him to go do brain surgery.

Isner, leading up to that long, long, long Wimbledon ordeal, had been on a steady climb up the rankings, but since has backslid a bit and just recovered from a twisted ankle. Mahut, who tried doubles here but lost Wednesday, said he barely has been the same since the Isner duel, with a bad back.

"My body just say, 'I don't want to play tennis anymore; give me a break,' " Mahut said. He has exchanged e-mails during the summer with Isner, each asking the other about his health and the ongoing attention to their historic battle.

"I'm pretty sure we'll be talking about it for 20 years, maybe more," Mahut said. "But we need time" to deal with it now.

Meanwhile, nothing is promised even to already established contenders. Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych, seeded seventh, was upset in straight sets by France's Michael Llodra, ranked 35th. No. 4 Andy Murray, assumed to have a shot at the Open title, won in three sets over Slovakia's Lukas Lacko, ranked 71st, but called it "pointless thinking ahead" to such a possibility.

As for Isner, it also is pointless to think behind. Though he declared himself "proud of being part" of the Wimbledon moment, he said, "I want to put it behind me. I want to do well in big tournaments, and this is my favorite tournament in the world."