Top American Mardy Fish booked his second ATP finals berth in as many tournaments on Saturday, but this time he had to fight to hold off young compatriot Ryan Harrison. Harrison, 19, kept his nerve in the face of a first-set onslaught and made world number nine Fish work hard to close out a 6-0, 4-6, 7-6 (7/3) semi-final victory at the $619,500 ATP hardcourt tournament in Los Angeles.
In Sunday’s final, Fish will face Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis, who defeated doubles partner Alex Bogomolov of the United States 6-2, 7-6 (7/4). Gulbis will be playing in his second career ATP final. He won his only previous championship match, at Delray Beach in 2010. Gulbis had last reached a semi-final at Sydney in January. He reached a career-high ranking of 21 in February but a series of lackluster results has seen him drop to 84th. “It’s a very big win for me,” said Gulbis, who fired 33 winners.
“I’m on the way to a comeback. If I wouldn’t win tonight I would drop to like, 1,000 (in the rankings).” Fish who has surpassed Andy Roddick as the top-ranked American, has gone from strength to strength this season. He cruised past Harrison in straight sets in the semi-finals in Atlanta last week and went on to win the title. That was Harrison’s first appearance in an ATP semi, and he showed on Saturday that he had learned a lot from the experience. “He did most of everything better,” Fish said. “He was as tough a player to put away as I’ve played.”
Fish, the top seed in Los Angeles, came out on fire, racing through the first set in just 20 minutes. “That was as clean of a set as I could possibly play,” Fish said of the opener. Although Harrison was clearly frustrated, he came out for the second set with renewed conviction. He held his serve with authority, and when Fish finally faltered, double faulting to give Harrison a break point and set point in the 10th game, Harrison pounced to seize the set. “I didn’t play a great game there,” Fish said, who admitted he was feeling “a little pressure”.
