Top seed Mardy Fish shook off the lingering effects of an ankle injury to beat Ricardas Berankis 6-3, 6-1 on Thursday and reach the quarter-finals of the Citi Open.
Fish is still feeling the injury he picked up in Atlanta two weeks ago, saying there is discomfort, but no restriction on his movement.
“That’s a tough thing, because it needs rest and I’m just not going to give it rest,” Fish said. “I can’t give it rest. I’m not going to miss these tournaments.”
Photo: EPA
Fish’s quarter-final opponent is scheduled to be Xavier Malisse, who beat sixth-seeded Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 6-2.
The No. 13-ranked Fish knows he is not at top form, but he also believes he is not too far away.
“I feel like I can go out against someone like I played tonight and not lose,” he said. “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.”
His compatriot Sam Querrey finished off Benjamin Becker with his eighth ace of the match, winning 6-4, 6-3.
The eighth-seeded Querrey, the Farmers Classic winner in Los Angeles on Sunday for his first title of the year, won all 24 of his first-serve points and on 22 of Becker’s 33 second serves.
“I returned really well,” Querrey said. “Especially on his second serves I was really aggressive, more so than normal, and it paid off.”
Querrey is set to face third-seeded Kevin Anderson, a 6-4, 6-4 winner over Florent Serra.
In the women’s tournament, top-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova advanced to the semi-finals, beating Taiwan’s Chang Kai-chen 6-4, 6-4. Pavlyuchenkova was broken early and fell behind 4-1 before recovering to reach her first semi-final this year.
“It wasn’t my best match today at all,” Pavlyuchenkova said. “She went out there and was playing really well. I kept going and I kept trying to find my energy. I’m happy I pulled it out.”
The Russian reached the quarter-finals of the French Open and US Open last year, but struggled for much of this year.
She reached the quarter-finals in Bastad, Sweden, in her last event.
“Now there’s a huge difference and I feel my game is much better than it was two weeks ago,” she said. “Maybe it’s just my mentality that I’m much more aggressive here.”
Pavlyuchenkova is scheduled to face fourth-seeded Vania King.
King beat No. 7 Coco Vandeweghe 6-1, 3-6, 6-4. King broke Vandeweghe twice to take the first five games and finished off the third set by breaking Vandeweghe for the fourth time.
Magdalena Rybarikova advanced with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over qualifier Jana Cepelova. She is to play third-seeded Sloane Stephens, a 6-4, 6-4 winner over Eugenie Bouchard.
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