Venus Williams’ countryman, John Isner, has been defeated by Radek Stepanek of Czech Republic in the third round of the Shanghai Rolex Masters 2012. Stepanek won the match by 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3. This victory took the Czech player into the quarter finals of the tournament.

Stepanek won the match in 2 hours and 27 minutes. Isner played well in the first couple of sets, but, in the third set, he didn’t look focussed and made too many unforced errors.

In the post match interview, Stepanek said, “It’s nice to be in the final 8. But, I need to keep playing well. I always like playing on the hard court. It’s a good opportunity for me to win the title and hopefully, I would do it.”

Isner who was looking disappointed said, “I let the opportunities go by in the final set and that cost me the match. My concentration level was not there in the third set.”

Both the players were off to a decent start in the match. In the opening set, the first six games went with the serve. Stepanek broke Isner’s service in the 7^th game and then, made the score 5-3 by serving out the next game. Isner served out the ninth game, but, that was not sufficient to stop Stepanek from grabbing the first set. The Czech player had no problems whatsoever in holding his service in the 10^th game and by doing that, he won the first set by 6-4.

In the second set, there were no breakthroughs at all and the set went into the tie breaker. Isner played brilliantly in the tie breaker and managed to extend the match.

But, in the third set, Stepanek was all over Isner. He got a breakthrough in the sixth game to get ahead by 4-2 and after that, he didn’t lose the lead. He kept it till the end to win the match.

In the quarter final, Stepanek will take on the British superstar Andy Murray.