Mardy Fish eases past Ernests Gulbis into quarterfinal – Tokyo Open 2011
Fourth seeded American Mardy Fish eased past Latvian Ernests Gulbis in straight sets at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2011, an ATP World Tour 500 series event held on the outdoor hard courts in Koto, Tokyo, Japan.
He registered a 6-2, 6-4 victory over the Riga native, Gulbis to secure a last eight spot on Wednesday.
World number eight, Fish is bidding for his second title of the season after dumping Latvian, ranked 41 spots below him in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, on their third meeting. He not only avenged his loss
at Masters 1000 event in Canada this season but also took lead in the head-to-head series against Gulbis.
American number one, Fish high spiritedly entered at the Ariake Coliseum and held his opening serve convincingly. After the scores were tied at 2-2, the Edina native unleashed barrage of forehands and backhands to wipe out last
four games in a row and clinched the set with a 6-4 win. He produced a slightly higher first serve share of 61 percent as compared to Gulbis’ 57 percent and earned a superb 93 percent win on it. In addition to this, the American warded off all three breakpoints
faced and cashed in on half of the four breakpoint chances to his advantage.
29-year-old Fish kept momentum sailing into the final set and smoothly kept entire serves without facing any breakpoint. Later, he got the desiderated break in the tenth game and sealed the set with a 6-4 score line. Fish manifested
a lower first serve share of 54 percent as compared to Latvian’s 72 percent but registered a spectacular 80 percent win on it.
"I felt great tonight," said Fish. "I played much better today that I did on Monday. It is difficult for all the players when the conditions change, but it is nice that the tournament has a roof. It didn't affect the way I played."
Fish will square off against Australian Bernard Tomic who bounced back to register a 6-7(4), 6-1, 7-5 success against a local wild card entrant Tatsuma Ito in two hours and twenty-three minutes.
Seventh seeded Czech Radek Stepanek will be joining Fish in the last eight of this event. He battled past Swiss Marco Chiudinelli in a three setter mouth watering match on their third meeting.
The Czech saved seven out of nine breakpoint faced and capitalised on five out of twelve breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to seal the deal in two hours and twenty-seven minutes. He not only booked a quarter-final spot
but also took lead in the head-to-head series by 2-1 against the Swiss.
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