Top seed Mardy Fish opened up the defense of his title in the Atlanta Championships with a 6-3, 6-3 third-round victory over Nicolas Mahut of France Thursday. Eighth seed Somdev Devvarman of India, Ryan Harrison and qualifier Rajeev Ram were the other third-round winners at the Racquet Club of the South. Harrison kept his composure despite double-faulting five times in the first set — seven overall — and eliminated Belgium's Xavier Malisse, upsetting the No. 4 seed 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4 in a fiery contest that involved an argument at a change of ends. Devvarman beat Japan's Tatsuma Ito 6-1, 6-3 and will play Fish in the quarterfinals. Harrison will face Ram, a 7-5, 2-6, 6-2 winner over Australia's Lleyton Hewitt. Simon stuns Monfils Fifth-seeded Gilles Simon beat No. 1 Gael Monfils 6-4, 3-6, 6-0 in an all-French showdown Friday to reach the semifinals of the German Open. Simon will next play fourth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia. Youzhny saved two match points to rally past No. 12 Marin Cilic of Croatia 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6). The Russian was down 6-4 in the tiebreaker but won the next four points to clinch the match after three hours. Youzhny squandered a 3-1 lead in the final set and led 4-1 in the tiebreaker before having to fight from behind. Zvonareva in semis Top-seeded Vera Zvonareva had to battle for over three hours to beat Georgia's Anna Tatishvili 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-2 on Friday and reach the semifinals of the Baku Cup. Zvonareva lined up a match Saturday against 165th-ranked Mariya Koryttseva, who advanced by defeating Ukrainian compatriot Kateryna Bondarenko 7-5, 6-4 despite it being only her second tournament this year. Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan advanced to her first career WTA semifinal after taking advantage of second-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova's erratic serve to win 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3 . She will now take on Russian Ksenia Pervak, who reached the semifinal by ousting Aravane Rezai of France 6-1, 6
