Spoiler:

Fish, Isner On Course For Final Rematch; Harrison To Break Top 100

Top seed and defending champion Mardy Fish made his way through to the semi-finals of the Atlanta Tennis Championships with a 6-4, 6-3 win over No. 8 seed Somdev Devvarman on Friday evening.

Fish, who opened his title defence with a straight-sets win over Nicolas Mahut on Thursday night, dropped serve early in the quarter-final match, but quickly gained control. He broke India’s top player four times to move within one game of victory, and successfully served out the match at the second time of asking.

World No. 9 Fish, the top-ranked American player, won the inaugural edition of this ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament last year after edging countryman John Isner in a third set tie-break. He will be looking to reach his first final of the season after falling in the semi-final stage in Memphis, Delray Beach and Miami.

The 29-year-old Fish next confronts countryman Ryan Harrison, 10 years his junior, who went the distance to defeat Rajeev Ram 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(5) in an all-American quarter-final.

Harrison saved one match point in the final game of the second set, and raced out to a 5-1 lead in the tie-break. Ram succeded in pulling level, but Harrison won the final two points to clinch the victory after two hours and 16 minutes.

Harrison, who advances to his first tour-level semi-final, will break into the Top 100 for the first time when the new South African Airways 2011 ATP Rankings are released Monday. He reached a career-high No. 101 earlier this month.

“I’m extremely excited to break the Top 100 of the ATP World Tour Rankings for the first time in my career,” said Harrison. “It’s always been a goal of mine and this is the first accomplished goal of many of my dreams. I’m looking forward to keeping it going.”

Isner, the No. 3 seed, needed just 56 minutes to book his place in the semi-finals as he dismissed Chinese Taipei’s Yen-Hsun Lu 6-1, 6-2 earlier in the day.

Isner won 88 per cent of his first serve points and converted on four of his six break point chances to extend his winning streak to seven matches. The 26 year old claimed his second ATP World Tour title two weeks ago at the grass-court tournament in Newport.

He will attempt to reach the Atlanta final for a second straight year when he next meets Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller. The World No. 82 prevailed against No. 2 seed Kevin Anderson of South African 7-6(3), 7-6(3) in two hours and six minutes.

Muller, 28, last reached a tour-level semi-final in 2005 at Los Angeles, where he eventually finished runner-up to Andre Agassi.

Brawo Ryan.