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Fish upsets Benneteau, and Isner escapes Kuznetsov in Citi Open second round

August 1, 2013 at 3:45AM

WASHINGTON — John Isner is pretty good in tiebreakers.

The eighth-seeded Isner, coming off a tournament victory Sunday in Atlanta, held off Alex Kuznetsov 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4) in the second round of the Citi Open on Wednesday.

Isner has won 16 of his last 17 tiebreakers, including six of seven in Atlanta.

"I don't hype myself up anymore when the situation comes to that," Isner said. "I've been in that situation before, quite a few times."

Isner will play India's Somdev Devvarman in the third round. Though they've never played each other professionally, while at Virginia in 2008, Devvarman beat Isner to win the NCAA singles championship. Isner's Georgia squad won the team title that year, though.

"I always tease him," Isner said "I was able to get the team ring, something he was never able to do."

Mardy Fish also advanced to the third round, beating 12th-seeded Julien Benneteau of France 6-3, 7-5. Fish will play seventh-seeded Kevin Anderson or Kevin Duckworth. Anderson was leading Duckworth 6-3, 3-6, 5-4 when play was suspended for the night because of rain.

Third-seeded Tommy Haas was losing to Tim Smyczek 6-3, 5-7, 1-0.

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Also, Russia's Dmitry Tursunov beat fifth-seeded Gilles Simon of France 6-4, 6-2; 13th-seeded Ivan Dodig of Croatia beat Germany's Tobias Kamke 2-6, 6-2, 6-3; and the Czech Republic's Radek Stepanek topped 17th-seeded Michael Llodra of France 6-2, 6-1.

On the women's side, Germany's Andrea Petkovic beat sixth-seeded compatriot Mona Barthel 6-2, 6-2 in the second round. Petkovic scraped her knee on the penultimate point, giving her a bright red mark.

"I'm happy to have something to show off now," said Petkovic, who will play Paula Ormaechea or Olga Puchkova.

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