Quick exit for Isner this time

Isner receives treatment as he plays Thiemo de Bakker of the Netherlands during their second round match.

LONDON // From longest to shortest in the space of 24 hours. That was the fate that befell John Isner, Wimbledon's new superhero yesterday. He began the day by dragging his aching body out of his oversized bed - the 23rd-seeded American is 2.06 metres tall and takes size 15 shoes - after a historic three-day battle to overcome Nicolas Mahut of France. He was then summoned to Court Five for a high noon shoot-out against Thiemo de Bakker of Holland.

The new, 1.000-seat show court was at capacity within minutes of the gates opening. But supporters who raced there to acclaim the accomplishments of the record-breaking Isner were reduced to silence and despair. Having been broken only once in his 11-hour struggle with Mahut and having held serve 69 times in their epic deciding set of 138 games, Isner simply fell apart, suffering from a mixture of fatigue and injuries in a 6-0, 6-3, 6-2 loss that took just one hour and 14 minutes.

His neck was stiff, his shoulder was "dead", he had a painful blister on one of his toes but, most crucially, he had no stamina left. Seven losses of serve and 74 minutes later, he was at the net shaking hands with an apologetic De Bakker, having claimed the unwanted distinction of figuring in the shortest match of this year's men's singles championships as well as the longest. Afterwards, Isner, 25, immediately announced his withdrawal from the doubles tournament.

He said with massive understatement: "Mentally and physically I was obviously a bit drained. I didn't have much in the way of legs. I was out of fuel out there. I didn't really have a chance." He put on a brave face but it was a sad sequel to his phenomenal effort against Mahut, an opponent with whom, he said, he will have an everlasting bond because of their epic battle. The 112 aces he sent down against Mahut - by a distance an all-time high on the ATP Tour - were nowhere to be seen in yesterday's one-sided affair.

"I didn't hit any aces?" he asked with incredulity. "I didn't know that. I don't think that has ever happened before." Although he said it "stinks" to go out in the second round, he believes he has the game to do some serious damage on the lawns of Wimbledon, and who would argue after the way his serving action clicked into such impressive gear over the previous three days. He dismissed the notion that it might have been better to concede his match yesterday rather than absorb the one-sided defeat.

"That was never in my thoughts," he said. "I wasn't dying out there, just tired." After the match, De Bakker acknowledged that everything had worked in his favour to propel him into today's third round. He will face France's Paul-Henri Mathieu, who took out Mikhail Youzhny, the 13th-seeded Russian in the other delayed second round match. The Dutchman, who had needed 30 games to settle the deciding set of his opening match against Santiago Giraldo of Colombia, said: "I feel sorry for John. It's tough when you are struggling like that.

"After my first match I was pretty tired as well, but 16-14 is nothing anymore. "But you can't afford to go a break down to a guy like him, so I had to make sure I took control of the match early on. "He didn't seem to try in the first set, so that helped me, but I know how lucky I was today to have such a dangerous opponent in such a hopeless position." @Email:[e-mail]