JOHNS CREEK, Ga. (AP)—Mardy Fish continued his hot run of form with a straight-sets win over top-seeded Andy Roddick on Saturday at the Atlanta Championships.
Fish extended his winning streak to nine matches with a 7-6 (5), 6-3 upset of Roddick, the No. 9 player in the world. Fish, the No. 6 seed, has not lost a set in the tournament and is closing in on back-to-back tournament wins.
“Confidence is a huge part of our sport,” Fish said. “I’m as confident on the court as I’ve ever been right now.”
Fish will face No. 2 seed and American compatriot John Isner in Sunday’s final. Isner beat South Africa’s Kevin Anderson 6-3, 6-7 (7), 6-3 earlier Saturday.
Following knee surgery last year, Fish has lost 30 pounds.
“I’ve worked hard and put away a lot of things I enjoy,” Fish said.
Fish said the weight loss “enabled me to work harder, to train harder. We’ve put in the work, and here it is.”
Fish, who won the title in Newport, R.I., earlier this month, ended a nine-match losing streak against close friend Roddick.
“It feels good to continue playing well,” Fish said. “I never want to play Andy, to be honest. He’s one of my best friends out here and not only that he’s beat me nine times in a row.”
Roddick led the first-set tiebreaker 3-2 before Fish won five straight points. Leading the tiebreaker 6-5, Fish came to the net for a winning volley to take the set, and he was relatively untroubled in the second.
“He played very solid,” Roddick said. “He stayed the course. He’s a confident player right now, as he should be, and it showed out there tonight.”
Isner had 20 aces, including the clincher on match point, as he survived another challenge to his endurance.
Isner gained fame by winning the longest match in history, a three-day, 183-game match at Wimbledon last month. The Atlanta semifinal presented a different kind of fatigue.
The temperature was 96 degrees for the start of the match. On the hard-court surface, the reading reached 147 degrees.
“The conditions were just brutal,” Isner said. “It definitely took a lot out of me.”
“Even though I am exhausted, I am able to use my energy smartly,” he said. “I am able to keep plugging away until I get my break eventually.”
Anderson said he went through six or seven shirts and had one drying on a fan if needed. But shirts were not the only concern.
“I was sweating through my shoes,” Anderson said. “I was slipping quite a bit.”
Isner beat the 6-foot-8 Anderson in a match of two of the three tallest players in the ATP tour’s Top 100 rankings.
The two were college rivals. Isner beat Anderson as Georgia beat Illinois to win the 2007 collegiate championship, and the American leads 3-1 in their pro careers.
Isner saved each of the seven break points he faced in the match. However he couldn’t hold serve when leading 7-6 in the second-set tiebreaker. Anderson won two straight points and then took the set.
Isner broke in the eighth game of the deciding set, and then served it out for victory.