ANDY RODDICK AND MARDY FISH WIN THEIR OPENER IN ATLANTA & JOHN ISNER SET FOR ATLANTA TITLE DEFENSE

Written by: Staff on 30th July 2015

ANDY RODDICK AND MARDY FISH WIN THEIR OPENER IN ATLANTA & JOHN ISNER SET FOR ATLANTA TITLE DEFENSE |

“Not a throwback! Andy Roddick returns from retirement to partner with Mardy Fish and reach the BB&T Atlanta Open quarter-finals. #tennis #bbtatlantaopen #Atlanta #doubles Photos: Alex Smith/ATP World Tour” – Photo by @atpworldtour via Instagram.

Fish finds success despite singles loss, Isner set for Atlanta title defense

By Ricky Dimon

One day after losing his first-round match at the BB&T Atlanta Open, Mardy Fish–a two-time singles champion of the event–found the win column on Wednesday evening.

And he did it with an old friend: none other than Andy Roddick.

Fish and Roddick teamed up to win their opening doubles match 7-6(2), 6-4 over Yen-Hsun Lu and former Wimbledon doubles champion Jonathan Marray. It was Roddick’s first appearance in official ATP competition since retiring from tennis at the 2012 U.S. Open.

“When you don’t play for that long, you don’t know what to expect,” Roddick said afterward. “I had a blast and I really wanted to win that.”

“Not a #throwback! Andy #Roddick returns from retirement to partner with #MardyFish and reach the @bbtatlantaopen quarter-finals. #tennis #bbtatlantaopen #Atlanta #doubles
Photos: Alex Smith/#ATP World Tour” – Photo by @atpworldtour via Instagram.

Another man who clearly wanted to win on Wednesday was Vasek Pospisil. Like Fish, Pospisil had already endured one loss this week. The Canadian and Jack Sock were the defending doubles champions in Atlanta but they lost right away this time around to Gilles Muller and Colin Fleming. Pospisil almost went two-and-done when he faced Yen-Hsun Lu in the singles second round.

After failing to close the match out in straight sets, Pospisil soon found himself serving at 4-4, 15-40 in the third and suffering from cramps. But the No. 2 seed somehow managed to hold for 5-4 then broke Lu to pull out a 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-4 victory.

Sock and John Isner will look to join Pospisil in the quarterfinals when they take the court on Thursday. An all-American affair is taking place between Sock and Denis Kudla. Their only previous encounter came on the indoor hard courts of San Jose in 2012, when Kudla prevailed 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-3.

The two-time defending champion of the BB&T Atlanta Open, Isner has to be feeling relatively good at the moment, and not just because he is playing close to his old college stomping grounds in Athens, Georgia. In between a slow start to the season and a recent first-round loss to Rajeev Ram in Newport, the world No. 19 found plenty of success. Highlights this year include a semifinal showing in Miami and a quarterfinal appearance in Madrid, and a decent week Wimbledon saw him win two matches before bowing out to Marin Cilic 12-10 in the fifth set.

Up first for Isner in Atlanta is Stepanek, who is leading the head-to-head series 3-1. They have faced each other once during the U.S. Open Series, with Stepanek getting the job done in a not-too-surprising third-set tiebreaker at the 2011 Cincinnati Masters. The two veterans most recently squared off at the 2012 Shanghai Masters, with Stepanek advancing 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3.

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand.

Topics: Andy Roddick, Atlanta, BB&T Atlanta Open, Fish & Roddick, John Isner, Jonathan Marray, Mardy Fish, Ricky Dimon, Tennis News, Yen Hsun Lu

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10sBalls_com says:

July 30, 2015 at 9:29 am

-@andyroddick AND @MardyFish WIN THEIR OPENER IN #Atlanta & @JohnIsner SET FOR ATLANTA TITLE DEFENSE- http://t.co/YunnsKk6Kr @BBTatlantaopen