Fish advances to quarters at Farmers

LOS ANGELES (AP)—Top-seeded Mardy Fish shook off a sluggish start and beat Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 7-6 (1), 6-1 on Thursday to advance to the quarterfinals at the Farmers Classic.

The No. 1-ranked American is in search of consecutive titles, having won in Atlanta last week. He has won six tournament in his career.
Muller broke Fish’s first service game and had set point but having lost the tiebreak, he fell away in the second set.
“Getting up a set, I knew he was going to be pretty frustrated knowing all the work he put in during the first set went for nothing,” Fish said.
Fish’s steady climb has resulted in a No. 9 world ranking, and he said “I’m playing as good as I’ve played.”
Thomaz Bellucci beat doubles partner Alejandro Falla 6-0, 6-1. The fourth-seeded Brazilian was playing his first match of the tournament after a first-round bye and overwhelmed his Colombian opponent in just 52 minutes.
The pair were to team up later Thursday for a second-round doubles match.
Bellucci’s quarterfinal opponent will be American Alex Bogomolov Jr., who overcame some difficulties with his serve to upset No. 7 seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 6-4, 6-3.
Eighth-seeded Igor Kunitsyn of Russia won both tiebreaks to defeat American Ryan Sweeting 7-6 (4), 7-6 (6) and will next face Fish