Isner and Fish Both Advance in D.C.
American John Isner, who had a tournament win last weekend at the BB&T Open in Atlanta, beat Alex Kuznetsov in two tie-breaker sets 7-6(2), 7-6(4) at the 2013 Citi Open in Washington, D.C. Isner had an excellent record with tie-breakers, winning 16 of his last 17 tiebreakers, with six of those coming in Atlanta.
”I don’t hype myself up anymore when the situation comes to that,” Isner said. ”I’ve been in that situation before, quite a few times.”
Isner’s next opponent will be the player who beat him in the 2008 NCAA singles championship, Somdev Devvarman. While Devvarman beat Isner in the singles final, Isner’s team still won the team title that year.
”I always tease him,” Isner said. ”I was able to get the team ring, something he was never able to do.”
Another American, Mardy Fish, advanced to the next round at the Citi Open as well, defeating the number 12 seed Julien Benneteau, 6-3, 7-5. Fish’s next opponent will be Kevin Anderson or Kevin Duckworth, as their match was suspended due to rain. The match between Tommy Haas and Tim Smyczek was also suspended due to rain, with the score a set all with Smyczek up 1-0 in the third. Dmitry Turnsunov defeated Gilles Simon 6-4, 6-2, Ivan Dodig beat Tobias Kamke, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, and Radek Stepanek had a win over Michael Llodra 6-2, 6-1.
