US second seed Mardy Fish saved three match points in a tie-breaker and rallied to defeat Australian Chris Guccione 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (14/12), 6-4 and reach the ATP Los Angeles Open quarter-finals.
Fish survived a 16-minute tie-breaker in the second set by denying the Aussie on three match points, the last on a backhand drop volley winner to reach 10-10, and taking his fourth set point when Guccione hit a forehand long.
Fish then broke Guccione to open the third set, the only service break either man surrendered, and then served out to advance at the hard court tuneup event for the US Open.
Next up for Fish is Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer, who ousted Russian fifth seed Igor Kunitsyn 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (7/9), 6-3.
Fish, who held at love in the final game of the match, won a title last March at Delray Beach, Florida, and battled back after a weak start.
Guccione took the first set on a backhand winner, capturing the last four points of the tie-breaker, and jumped ahead 3-0 in the second set tie-breaker, before Fish took the next four points, the last on a double fault after an ace for Guccione was overturned on appeal.
Fish denied Guccione’s first match point with a service winner to reach 6-6 and his second opportunity with a forehand winner to 8-8, setting the stage for his drop volley rescue and eventual fightback to victory.
Israeli fourth seed Dudi Sela, who helped his homeland upset Russia in a Davis Cup quarter-final earlier this month before making a second-round exit last week at Indianapolis, defeated American Robert Kendrick 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.
Sela, who reached the round of 16 at Wimbledon, will next face US sixth seed Sam Querrey, who ousted American qualifier Ryan Sweeting 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3.
Querrey, runner-up at Newport and Indy the past two weeks, dropped the first five games of the second set, then won the next five and, while he dropped the tie-breaker, an early service break in the third sparked the win.
“I kind of lost focus in the second set, then I think he kind of lost focus,” Querrey said. “He let me right back into it, without me really playing well, then he picked it up in the tie-breaker. You’ve just got to stay positive and bounce back, and I thought I did a good job of that in the third set.”
German top seed Tommy Haas and Russian eighth seed Marat Safin will meet to decide who plays the Querrey-Sela winner in the semi-finals.
■BANK OF THE WEST CLASSIC
AP, STANFORD, CALIFORNIA
Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic rallied to beat Germany’s Sabine Lisicki 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 to reach the quarter-finals of the Bank of the West Classic on Thursday.
Jankovic, seeded fourth and ranked No. 6, joins Serena and Venus Williams in the final eight, giving the Stanford event one of its most prestigious quarter-finals.
Wimbledon champion Serena Williams advanced after beating Hungary’s Melinda Czink 6-3, 7-6 (9/7) and Venus Williams got by qualifier Alla Kudryavtseva, 6-3, 7-5, setting up an evening showdown with Maria Sharapova, who continues her comeback from right shoulder surgery.
Eighth-seeded Marion Bartoli of France advanced with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over qualifier Melanie Oudin of the US and will meet Jankovic.
“There should be a lot of good tennis,” Bartoli said. “I always beat Jankovic, so who do you think I want to play?”
Jankovic was less than impressed with Bartoli’s comments.
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