Smooth sailing for Mardy Fish playing his first tournament as the No. 1 ranked American. Fish defeated Albert Ramos 6-3, 6-3 to advance to Friday’s quarterfinals. Fish is a career high No. 11 in the ATP World Tour rankings this week and is the 11th different American to hold the top ranking among his countrymen since the Tour began keeping rankings in 1973.
Friday’s tall tale – Karlovic, who stands 6-foot-10, will play John Isner, who is 6-foot-9, in Friday’s quarterfinals. They have split their two previous ATP meetings.
Ivo Karlovic‘ s Houston winning streak is now up to nine straight matches (four in 2007, three in qualifying, two in main draw). Karlovic has fired a total of 123 aces during that streak, including 70 through his five matches this year. Karlovic has faced just two break points in those five matches, and today was the first time he had been broken in the event.
Also in Friday’s action, Ryan Sweeting, the 2005 US Open Junior Champion, and his opponent Teymuraz Gabashvili are playing to reach their first career semifinal.
Japan’s Kei Nishikori is involved with two efforts to help with the earthquake and tsunami relief in his home country. The two projects are an online auction of tennis memorbilia and experiences and through donations to the Red Cross on his Facebook page.
Third seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and seventh seed Pablo Cuevas will face off for the first time in their careers on Friday in the quarterfinals. While they’ve never played each other before, they should be quite familiar with each other as they are through to the doubles semifinals this week as well. After their singles match in the afternoon, the two will team up to face the three-time champion Bryan Brothers on Friday night.
2011 Singles Main Draw
2011 Doubles Main Draw
2011 Singles Qualifying Draw
RESULTS – THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 2011
Singles Second Round
[1] Mardy Fish (USA) d Albert Ramos (ESP) 63 64
[3] Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP) d Somdev Devvarman (IND) 64 61
[6] Kei Nishikori (JPN) d Igor Andreev (RUS) 63 63
[7] Pablo Cuevas (URU) d [WC] James Blake (USA) 75 61
Doubles Quarterfinal
John Isner (USA) / Sam Querrey (USA) d [WC] Denis Kudla (USA) / Donald Young (USA) 76(5) 61
Pablo Cuevas (URU) / Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP) d Travis Rettenmaier (USA) / Horacio Zeballos (ARG) 36 63 10-4
ORDER OF PLAY – FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2011
STADIUM start 12:00 noon
Teymuraz Gabashvili (RUS) vs [WC] Ryan Sweeting (USA)
Not Before 1:00 PM
[Q] Ivo Karlovic (CRO) vs [4] John Isner (USA)
[3] Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP) vs [7] Pablo Cuevas (URU)
Not Before 6:00 PM
[1] Mardy Fish (USA) vs [6] Kei Nishikori (JPN)
[1] Bob Bryan (USA) / Mike Bryan (USA) vs Pablo Cuevas (URU) / Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP)
COURT 3
Not Before 4:00 PM
John Isner (USA) / Sam Querrey (USA) vs [2] Eric Butorac (USA) / Jean-Julien Rojer (AHO) – After suitable rest