Sunday preview: Andy Murray to face another ace-maker

7:43 AM ET

We’re closing in on business time at the French Open, with an American man hoping to create a major upset Sunday.

Here are our top three fourth-round matches to watch on Day 8.

No. 2 Andy Murray versus No. 15 John Isner Head-to-head record: Murray leads 5-0Dennis Grombkowski/Getty Images

This main theme here is obvious: Can the heavy artillery of John Isner blast through the exceptional defense of Murray?

The head-to-head stat certainly is lopsided in Murray’s favor. But almost all the matches have been competitive and littered with Isner’s signature tiebreakers — seven of their 16 sets, in fact, have gone the distance. Underdogs and big servers like tiebreakers, but Murray has won five of those seven. Credit his ability to get stick on the ball.

Murray, who was severely tested in five-setters in the first two rounds, caught a third-round break. He played Ivo Karlovic, an aging, hit-or-miss serving specialist. The points went quickly and Murray won handily. Karlovic was a good opponent for Murray in another, more forward-looking way. He gave Murray some real-time practice against one of the very few serves that is anything like Isner’s.

At 6-foot-11, Karlovic is just an inch taller than Isner. Their serves are especially difficult to handle because of the angle at which they travel from that unusual height and the subsequent arc of the bounce.

Murray isn’t nearly as wobbly as he was going back a few days. He put 75 percent of his first serves into play in his last match and had an stellar plus-30 winner-to-unforced error differential (34-4).

In his last match, Isner put a hair under 70 percent of his first serves into play and claimed 75 percent of those points. He won 49 percent of his second-serve points. Those are good numbers, but his bugaboo is usually unforced errors. Isner is averaging 55 per match in Paris.

He …

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