Mardy Fish, a two-time Cincinnati finalist, defeated the No. 31-ranked Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 6-2, 6-3 during his match on Center Court at the Lindner Family Tennis Center on Tuesday, a day featuring 41 matches and nine other Americans, including the Williams sisters.
Fish, who missed two and a half months earlier in the season due to health issues, recently made it to the semifinals in Washington and the quarterfinals in last week’s tournament in Toronto. The No. 10 seed meets Argentina’s Carlos Berlocq in the second round.
Wild card Sam Querrey also advanced to the second round after taking out Jurgen Melzer 4-6, 6-2, 6-4. The American Querrey won the Los Angeles title in July.
Earlier in the day on Center Court, two-time Cincinnati champion Andy Roddick succumbed in the first round to France’s Jeremy Chardy 7-6(4), 6-3.
The No. 16 seed Roddick, a titlist in 2003 and 2006, served the same number of aces, seven, during the match as his No. 38-ranked opponent Chardy. Ultimately, the veteran failed to earn chances on the Frenchman’s serve, dropping his one and only break point chance, in the over 90-minute loss on Center Court.
Up next for Chardy in the second round is Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.
American Brian Baker, a wild card, also lost in his match at the Lindner Family Tennis Center on Tuesday. Despite securing a strong result by beating Philipp Kohlschreiber in a rematch of their Wimbledon meeting on Monday, the comeback story of the season failed to challenge the Australian teen Bernard Tomic.
Winning 6-4, 6-3 over Baker, the former Wimbledon quarterfinalist Tomic has now notched wins over two American competitors in a row at the Western & Southern Open this year. In his first round match on Sunday, Tomic took out Ryan Harrison, an up-and-coming talent on the ATP Tour from Louisiana.
In other results from the day, 34-year old Tommy Haas has continued his strong form this season with a three-set affair over Argentina’s David Nalbandian. At three hours and 22 minutes, the match is tied for the longest non-Olympics match this season.
The No. 23-ranked German won a title at Halle earlier this year over Roger Federer and advanced to finals at Hamburg and Washington. With the victory, Haas next meets the No. 6 seed and bronze medalist at the Olympics, Juan Martin del Potro.
The No. 14 seed Kei Nishikori of Japan, Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic, Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus and Alex Bogomolov Jr. of Russia also advanced to the second round with straight sets victories.