Roddick, Fish, Berdych Face Stern Tests Today in Washington
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What a great line-up is on tap today in Washington at the Legg Mason Tennis. Andy Roddick headlines a schedule which includes Fernando Verdasco, Tomas Berdych, David Nalbandian, John Isner and Marin Cilic who plays Mardy Fish in just a few hours. ADHEREL
The second-seeded Roddick has beaten his opponent Thursday, Gilles Simon, in both prior meetings. Should Roddick and Nalbandian both win tonight they’ll meet Friday in the quarterfinals. I know we are not suppose to look to far ahead but I’d love to see that match.
Nalbandian easily beat Stan Wawrinka yesterday, today he plays Swiss Marco Chuidinelli.
The top seed Berdcyh won in three sets last night over Dmitry Tursunov. Today, the Czech takes on the vastly improving Andrei Golubev who just won Hamburg. Berdych did beat the Kazakh en route to his Wimbledon final last month.
Xavier Malisse will try to stay perfect against the 6-foot-9 Isner. X-Man beat Big John in their only prior meeting on the Houston clay courts in a third set breaker in April. Isner already gained revenge two nights ago beating the man who knocked him out of Wimbledon, Thiemo de Bakker, in two breakers.
Fish and Cilic meet open play in arguably the best match of the day. Cilic has won both career matches against Fish but Mardy enters this clash riding a personal-best 11-match win streak and having won 17 of his last 19. Cilic, who began the year on fire, has since fizzled with just one quarterfinal result in his last nine events.
Also today, Verdasco takes on American Ryan Sweeting, and Marcos Baghdatis faces Marchenko.
The matches today will be on the Tennis Channel live starting at 4pm ET. ESPN2 will join in on the coverage for quarterfinal Friday.
WASHINGTON THURSDAY SCHEDULE
STADIUM start 4:00 pm
[15] M Fish (USA) vs [4] M Cilic (CRO)
Not Before 5:30 PM
X Malisse (BEL) vs [5] J Isner (USA)
Not Before 7:00 PM
[13] G Simon (FRA) vs [2] A Roddick (USA)
R Bopanna (IND) / A Qureshi (PAK) vs [2] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA)
GRANDSTAND start 4:00 pm
I Marchenko (UKR) vs [8] M Baghdatis (CYP)
Not Before 5:30 PM
[3] [WC] F Verdasco (ESP) vs [Q] R Sweeting (USA)
[WC] D Nalbandian (ARG) vs M Chiudinelli (SUI)
COURT 1 start 4:00 pm
J Tipsarevic (SRB) vs A Falla (COL)
Not Before 6:00 PM
[1] T Berdych (CZE) vs [16] A Golubev (KAZ)
[4] J Knowle (AUT) / A Ram (ISR) vs M Baghdatis (CYP) / S Wawrinka (SUI)
COURT 2 not before 6:00 PM
M Fish (USA) / M Knowles (BAH) vs S Aspelin (SWE) / P Hanley (AUS)
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