Los Angeles, July 31 (DPA) Second seed Mardy Fish survived a huge scare from Australian Chris Guccione, squeezing out a dramatic 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (14-12), 6-4 victory in his opening match at the Los Angeles Open tennis to reach the quarter-finals.
Fish, given a first-round bye, found himself in a battle with number 112 Guccione, who won a shootout last weekend to secure a wild card place in the event.
The Australian, who turned 24 Thursday, fired through the first set with a dozen aces and 26 winners to take early command. He flirted with a quick win at the end of the second set in a marathon 16-minute tiebreaker.
But the 21st-ranked Fish, playing in front of his adopted LA crowd, put up an heroic stand as he saved three match points before finally coming through to level at a set each.
The American went up an early break in the third set to eventually move into a Friday quarter-final with Argentine outsider Leonardo Mayer, who upset fifth seed Igor Kunitsyn 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (7-9), 6-3 in just under three hours.
“I was lucky to win that second-set breaker,” said Fish, still carrying a slight injury from the Davis Cup three weeks ago. “I don’t know much about Mayer other than he’s a young guy playing well. He beat my buddy James Blake in the French Open (first round) in Paris, so I’ll be out for revenge.”
Guccione was bidding for his first quarter-final since January 2008, but lost his chance in the match lasting two hours and 22 minutes.
Israeli fourth seed Dudi Sela continued his charge from a standing start this season, with the number 30 posting a 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 victory over Robert Kendrick.
Sela, who began the year at around 100, moved into his third quarter-final of the season after getting to the stage just once each during the 2007 and 2008 campaigns.
“I worked hard on my fitness and my game in the off-season,” said the 24-year-old, who also played the Memphis semi-finals early in the year. “It was nothing special, just taking things more seriously and improving my game.”
Sela played on the record-setting Israeli Davis Cup team, which has put the nation into a first semi-final in the worldwide event.
Qualifier Ryan Sweeting missed out on his first ATP quarter-final as sixth-seeded American compatriot Sam Querrey recovered after a disaster second set to sweep their contest 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3.
Querrey won the first set, recovered from 0-5 down in the second to take it into a tiebreaker but failed to close it out. It finally went the distance before the seed advanced.
“I wanted to forget about the second set and start the third clean,” said Querrey. “I went into the third with a fresh mind.”
Querrey, 21, has now reached a third consecutive last-eight place after Newport and Indianapolis last week. The career-best 32nd also lost finals in those last two events and stands 28-18 on the season.
rounak