Fish makes solid start to title defence

Mardy Fish began the defence of his Atlanta Tennis Championships crown with a straight-set win over Nicolas Mahut.

The world number nine made untroubled progress into the quarter-finals as he won 6-3 6-3 in just under an hour-and-a-half on court.

Fish will meet eighth seed Somdev Devvarman in the next round after the Indian cast aside Tatsuma Ito 6-1 6-3.

Former US Open winner Lleyton Hewitt crashed out to American qualifier Rajeev Ram 7-5 2-6 6-2.

Veteran Hewitt, who won at Flushing Meadows 10 years ago, had hoped to halt his slide down to 174 in the world rankings after showing signs of his best at Wimbledon last month.

But the Australian laboured against the world 272 and exited in just under two hours.

Ram’s reward was a quarter-final meeting with fellow American Ryan Harrison after the 19-year-old upset fourth seed Xavier Malisse 6-7 (7/3) 6-4 6-4.