Mardy Fish bulldozes Ricardas Berankis in the second round – Citi Open 2012
Top seed, Mardy Fish of USA, moved to his second quarter-final of the season by defeating Lithuania’s wild card entrant, Ricardas Berankis, in the round of 16 at the Citi Open in Washington, USA on Thursday.
Fish scored an easy victory, beating his opponent in straight sets 6-3, 6-1 in just an hour to advance to the last-eight stage.
The American player and his Lithuanian rival won their serves in the opening three games to take the score to 2-1 in favour of the former. Fish hit a blow to Berankis in the fourth and consolidated on it to gain a 4-1 advantage.
The American star did not let away his lead till the end, closing it 6-3.
Fish bombarded seven aces on Berankis but also committed one double fault. The right-hander had a pretty decent conversion rate, sealing 16 of the 21 first and seven of the 10 second delivery points. On the other hand, Berankis
banged in a couple of aces and made equal number of double faults. The Lithuanian participant failed to save one of the two break points he faced and could not convert any of the two he received.
Ranked 15th in the world, Fish played almost flawlessly in the second set, as he allowed the Lithuanian contestant to claim only a single game till the end, breaking him three times and holding all of his own serves
to capture it 6-1.
The American suffered injury in his right ankle a couple weeks back. Telling about that, he said, "That's a tough thing, because it needs rest and I'm just not going to give it rest. I can't give it rest. I'm not going to miss
these tournaments."
Fish has been on the top of his form since last year. The American number two added, "I feel like I can go out against someone like I played tonight and not lose. That's important. You'd be surprised, in years past I felt like
I could really beat anyone, but I could also lose to anyone on any given day. And I feel like if I play relatively normal right now - I have the confidence, anyway, it might not be true - I have the confidence that I don't lose many matches like that anymore."
The 30-year-old is slated to face Belgium’s Xavier Malisse in the quarter-finals. Malisse upset France’s sixth seeded player, Jeremy Chardy, in the second round.
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