Mardy Fish vs. Somdev Devvarman -2011 Atlanta Tennis Championships Quarterfinal Preview

Top seed Mardy Fish takes on Indian Ace Somdev Devvarman for a place in the semifinals of the 2011 Atlanta Tennis Championships, an ATP World Tour 250 event being played here in Atlanta, USA.

For a long time, Mardy Fish lived in the shadow of his much more successful contemporary and friend, Andy Roddick. However, the American star made a successful start to his somewhat second innings on ATP tour in 2009 when he claimed his first title in three years, in Delray Beach. More success followed next year when Fish picked up titles in Newport and Atlanta before reaching the final of Cincinnati Masters.  Fish's best performance this year came in Miami at the Sony Ericsson Open where he lost to eventual champion Novak Djokovic. Fish also made semifinals in Delray Beach and Memphis. Fish's best Grand Slam performance this year came at Wimbledon where he finished a quarterfinalist to Rafael Nadal.

Fish's opponent, Indian Somdev Devvarman is currently ranked No.68 in the world and has no ATP singles titles to his name. After reaching the finals in Chennai two years ago, DevVarman enjoyed another impressive run in Johannesburg where he finished runner up once again. DevVarman, who is attempting to become the first Indian since Leander Paes in 1998 to win a singles title on tour, has given notable results this season. Having competed against both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, Devvarman's only Grand Slam match win came at Wimbledon where he reached the second round before losing to Mikhail Youzhny. This week, DevVarman outclassed local favourite Ryan Sweeting and Japanese Tatsuma Ito to enter the last eight of the event.

Both players have contested two matches before and Fish has recorded win in each one of them. In the pair's previous meeting in Newport, Fish conceded just two games in scoring a comfortable win.

Devvarman is a very good hardcourt player and finds his best groundstrokes on the tough surface. Fish, who is a defending champion here, is himself a very accompolished hardcourt player and is by all means, a favourite, not only in the match but the tournament as well.