Wildcard entrant Fish stuns seventh seed Volandri

By IANS

New York : American wildcard Mardy Fish upset Italian seventh seed Filippo Volandri 6-7 (4-7), 7-5, 6-0 to reach the third round of the Pilot Pen event in New Haven, Connecticut.


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Fish sealed his first back-to-back victories since February Monday 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 triumph over France’s Marc Giquel.

He now plays 12th seed Fernando Verdasco or American Vince Spadea.

Spadea edged out Russian Evgeny Korolev 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 while sixth-seeded Finn Jarko Nieminen needed a final-set tie-break to beat Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 3-6 6-2 7-6 (8-6).

Mario Ancic, of Croatia, who came through qualifying after rejecting a wildcard into the tournament to gain more match practice, was ousted 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 by Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka in the first round.

Frenchman Arnaud Clement and Julien Benneteau also progressed to the second round 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.

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