Fish reaches Atlanta quarterfinals

ATLANTA, July 21 (UPI) -- Top-seeded Mardy Fish reached the quarterfinals of the Atlanta Tennis Championships Thursday with a straight-sets win over Nicolas Mahut.

Fish, looking for his first title of the year, won for the seventh time in nine matches after having limited his action during the last two months to grand slam events.

He reached the third round of the French Open and his match against Mahut was his first since being eliminated by Rafael Nadal in the Wimbledon quarterfinals.

Fish downed Mahut 6-3, 6-3 to set up a quarterfinal meeting with Somdev Devvarman, who ousted Tatsuma Ito 6-1, 6-3.

Rajeev Ram also moved into the quarterfinals by outlasting Lleyton Hewitt 7-5, 2-6, 6-2. Ram's next opponent will be Ryan Harrison, who surprised fourth-seeded Xavier Malisse 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 6-4.

The other two quarterfinal matches will send No. 3 John Isner against Yen-Hsun Lu and second-seeded Kevin Anderson against Gilles Muller.