NEW HAVEN (Connecticut), Aug 21: American wildcard Mardy Fish continued his tentative return to form at the ATP event in New Haven on Monday as he upset seventh seed Filippo Volandri of Italy 6-7, 7-5, 6-0 to reach the third round.
Fish hammered 18 aces as he won back-to-back matches for the first time since February to set up a clash with ninth seed Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia or Argentine Jose Acasuso.
Second seed Tommy Robredo won his first match on hard courts this summer with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Frenchman Marc Giquel to advance to round three.
Robredo now plays 12th seed Fernando Verdasco or American Vince Spadea, who edged out Russian Evgeny Korolev 6-2, 5-7, 7-5. Finn Jarko Nieminen was the other man to book a place in the third round but the sixth seed needed a final-set tiebreak to get past Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6.
Croat Mario Ancic, who came through qualifying after rejecting a wildcard into the tournament to gain more match practice, was ousted 7-6, 6-4 by Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka in the first round.
Frenchman Arnaud Clement and Julien Benneteau also advanced to round two while lucky loser Luis Horna of Peru beat Austrian Stefan Koubek 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.
In the women’s event, sixth seed Elena Dementieva of Russia came through a tough match with Italian Mara Santangelo 6-2, 3-6, 6-0 to reach round two. Seventh seed Sybille Bammer of Austria and number eight, Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko, advanced with straight-set victories.
Results on Monday (prefix number denotes seeding):