ATLANTA — Two-time defending champion John Isner ran his Atlanta Open winning streak to 10 matches Friday, riding his big serve to a 7-6 (4), 6-4 victory over Ricardis Berankis. The top-seeded Isner had 19 aces less than 24 hours after ripping off 33 in a two-set victory over Radek Stepanek. Isner will face training partner Denis Kudla Saturday in his 34th ATP Tour semifinal. Kudla, a qualifier, beat Dudi Sela 7-5, 6-0 to reach his first ATP semifinal.
In the night quarterfinals, seventh-seeded Gilles Muller of Luxemborg beat Japan's Go Soeda 7-5, 6-1, and fifth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus topped second-seeded Vasek Pospisil of Canada 6-4, 7-5 (5).
Isner is trying to reach the Atlanta final for the fifth time in six years. He lost in the finals in 2010 and 2011, fell in the 2012 semifinals to eventual champion Andy Roddick, and won the past two years.
As a wild-card entry at Wimbledon, the 22-year-old Kudla became the first American male to reach the round of 16 since 2012 before falling to Marin Cilic.
“He's solid, very quick,” Isner said about Kudla. “Me being the elder statesman, I need to show him no mercy, but he's playing the best tennis of his life.”
In pushing his Atlanta record to 18-3, Isner reached his sixth straight Atlanta semifinal. The 6-foot-10 former University of Georgia player's serve peaked at 138 mph.
Berankis, a Lithuanian ranked No. 87, also served well. He had 10 aces, and won 86 percent of his first serves (to Isner's 84 percent), and 62 percent on seconds.
Serena withdraws
World No. 1 Serena Williams has withdrawn from the upcoming Bank of the West Classic because of an elbow injury she says must get “back to 100 percent.”
The tournament announced her withdrawal Friday. It runs Aug. 3-9 at Stanford University.
Williams expressed her disappointment and noted, “The tournament is one of my favorites and the fans have always been so generous and supportive of me.”
Williams recently won her sixth Wimbledon championship, 21st Grand Slam singles title overall and fourth consecutive major event — the “Serena Slam” — and she also won four Slam events in a row in 2002-03. She will now look to chase a fifth straight at the US Open in August.
Fifth-ranked Caroline Wozniacki will make her Bank of the West Classic debut, and as the top seed.
Goffin in semifinals
Top-seeded David Goffin of Belgium advanced to the Swiss Open semifinals Friday, beating sixth-seeded Joao Sousa of Portugal 6-7 (7), 6-4, 7-6 (1). Goffin will face fifth-seeded Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil on Saturday in the clay-court tournament. Two-time Gstaad winner Bellucci beat fourth-seeded defending champion Pablo Andujar of Spain 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.
In the other quarterfinals, second-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain topped eighth-seeded Santiago Giraldo of Colombia 7-6 (4), 6-4, and third-seeded Dominic Thiem of Austria outlasted seventh-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain 6-4, 3-6, 6-2. — Agencies
