Tomic Beats Fish, Joins Roddick, Mayer Into Third Round

© Getty ImagesFlorian Mayer defeated David Nalbandian to reach the third round.

World No. 49 Bernard Tomic, who is 10 days from his 19th birthday, recorded his second Top 10 win on Wednesday when he beat No. 9-ranked Mardy Fish 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 in just under two hours at the Shanghai Rolex Masters.

Fish, who beat Tomic in the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships quarter-finals just four days ago, had been hoping to add valuable points in the battle to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament. Fish is currently No. 6 in the South African Airways 2011 ATP Year-To-Date Rankings on 2,875 points.

Tomic beat No. 5-ranked Robin Soderling at Wimbledon this year. The Australian won 72 per cent of his service points and converted three of his eight break point opportunities. 

"It's been a good year," said Tomic. "I can't expect much more from myself. I've had a good six months. I'm playing well here. The surface, conditions suit me. I think it's been a good run.  I've got to play well now in the third round. I think I've got a lot more to improve in the next few years. I don't think I should set targets because when you set goals, things change, things happen. I think you've just got to play tennis, have fun, not have a lot of pressure. In the juniors, everything was under a lot of stress and you'd play. But if you have fun, good things happen."

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Tenth seed Andy Roddick also reached the third round for the first time in three attempts on Tuesday as he edged upcoming Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 7-6(3), 7-5. The American, who had fallen at the second-round stage in 2009-2010, failed to serve out the first set at 5-4, but regrouped to clinch the opener in the tie-break. He twice rallied from a break down in the second set, including saving a set point in the 10th game, before breaking Dimitrov to love in the 12th game for victory in just over two hours.

"I felt like I was returning pretty well and hitting my forehand pretty well," said Roddick. "Then all of a sudden, I'm not putting a first serve in the court. I felt like I was getting it backwards a little bit. The guy doubles three times and lets you back in, then you kind of donate it right back, that's not normally a recipe to win a match. [I] got through it, though. I do that pretty well:  get through matches when everything doesn't go perfectly. There's no such thing as a bad win. I'll keep going in this tournament hopefully."

Next up for Roddick is seventh seed Nicolas Almagro, who is this week looking for crucial points in the Battle for London. Almagro, who is 500 points adrift of eighth-placed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the South African Airways 2011 ATP Year-To-Date Rankings, came through an all-Spanish contest with Tommy Robredo 7-5, 6-3 in 81 minutes.

The 26-year-old Almagro has struggled for his top form of late and came into Shanghai on the back of a first-round defeat in Beijing (l. to Youzhny). His best results this year have come on the clay, winning three titles at the Brasil Open (d. Dolgopolov) in Costa do Sauipe, the Copa Claro (d. Chela) in Buenos Aires, and the Open de Nice Côte d’Azur (d. Hanescu).

Eighth seed Gilles Simon, who reached the 2009 quarter-finals, advanced to the third round adding 45 points to his South African Airways 2011 ATP Year-To-Date Rankings and move up to No. 11 in the Battle for London. Simon hit eight aces and saved all six break points he faced to thump Spaniard Albert Montanes 6-1, 6-1 in 58 minutes.

Elsewhere, Stanislas Wawrinka, the Swiss No. 13 seed, overcame Bangkok finalist Donald Young 6-7(5), 7-6(2), 6-2 in two hours and 26 minutes. German No. 15 seed Florian Mayer dismissed Argentina’s David Nalbandian 6-3, 6-4. Mayer converted four of his seven break point opportunities and won 83 per cent of points behind his first serve to claim victory in 74 minutes. He improved to a 41-23 match record on the year.