No marathon magic for Isner this time

— -- LONDON -- This time, John Isner's Wimbledon sequel lasted only two games and 15 minutes.

Five years ago, the 6-foot-10 American locked up with Nicolas Mahut and made tennis history, winning an 11-hour, 5-minute match that required three days to finish.

Returning to Court No. 1 Saturday after his five-set match was suspended a night earlier because of darkness, Isner was broken on his very first service game by  Marin Cilic.

The final: 7-6 (4), 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-7 (4), 12-10. Total run time: 4 hours, 31 minutes, the longest match of the tournament. Of course it was.

Afterward, Isner looked drained and sounded emotional. He complained about the officiating.

"Surprisingly the linesmen missed two calls," Isner said. "For four hours yesterday, there were hardly any bad calls. I just didn't do it today, and really the whole course of the match. He was the better player."

Later, he added, "There's no excuses. He beat me, plain and simple. There's really no sugarcoating it. I've lost a lot of matches like that the last four years. It sucks."

Not that 17th-seeded Isner didn't do his best to resist. When Cilic dropped him into a 15-40 hole, Isner responded to those match-point opportunities with aces of 137 and 136 mph. He saved another (his fourth overall) with a nifty serve-and-volley combination.

But Cilic forced a fifth match point and Isner answered with a double fault. Isner had only three double faults in the match but two came in the last three points.

"I was playing yesterday really good," Cilic said. "I was close to finish it off. I was putting more pressure on the returns. I was lucky I broke him the first game.

"Really, really thrilled I am through."

Cilic, the 2014 US Open champion, has now won 13 of his past 14 Grand Slam matches. The Croatian player had 35 aces, only two fewer than Isner, who had 37 and finished with 98 in three matches. Isner, who has logged seven tournaments here, has never reached the fourth round.

A year ago, Cilic won two of the first three sets in the quarterfinals against Novak Djokovic but lost in five. If he gets past the last American man in the draw, Denis Kudla, Cilic could see Djokovic again in the quarters.

"[Denis] likes grass a lot," Isner said. "He'll need to keep on playing well against Marin, for sure. And he knows that."