Americans Lipsky & Ram and Fish Advance at Delray Beach International Tennis Championships
February 23, 2011 | By Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
The American doubles team of Merrick, N.Y. native Scott Lipsky & Rajeev Ram upset the team of Jonathan Erlich & Andy Ram of Israel, in a third set superbreaker tie-break, 6-2, 3-6, 10-2, to advance to the second round of the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships. Just last week, the duo of Lipsky & Ram captured their second career ATP doubles title together with a win over Alejandro Falla & Xavier Malisse, 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (10-8,) in the finals of the SAP Open in San Jose. That was the second consecutive final for the pair, having lost in a match tiebreak the week before in South Africa. The win was the fifth career doubles title for Ram and the fourth for Lipsky. Ram and Lipsky also won last year in Atlanta in the opener of the U.S. Open Series.
In singles action, second-seeded Mardy Fish advanced to the second round in Delray Beach when when Bjorn Phau retired from their first-round match due to an illness, while trailing 0-5. Fish, a native of Florida, has captured the Delray Beach International Tennis Championship in 2009 and was a finalist at the event in 2003. In the 20-min. match, Fish won 20 of 26 points before Phau was forced to retire.
