LOS ANGELES, July 29 (UPI) -- Mardy Fish bounced back from a slow start Thursday to defeat Gilles Muller and reach the quarterfinals of the Farmers Classic.
Fish, who at No. 9 is the top American player in the world rankings, continued his best stretch of the season by overcoming an early loss of serve to down Muller 7-6 (7-1), 6-1.
After reaching the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, Fish won his first tournament of the year last week in Atlanta.
His quarterfinal opponent will be Igor Kunitsyn, who defeated Ryan Sweeting 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (8-6).
Fish is three places in front of fellow-American Andy Roddick in the world rankings. Roddick announced earlier in the day he was skipping next week's tour stop in Washington due to an abdominal strain.
Fourth-seeded Thomaz Bellucci and Alex Bogomolov set up a quarterfinal meeting with wins in their second-round matches Thursday.
Bellucci ousted Alejandro Falla 6-0, 6-1 and Bogomolov was a 6-4, 6-3 winner over Grigor Dimitrov.
In the other quarterfinal showdowns Friday, Yen-Hsun Lu will meet Ryan Harrison and Ernests Gulbis will face second-seeded Juan Martin del Potro.
