Serbia led Russia 2-0 thanks to Dusan Lajovic, who
substituted for the injured Janko Tipsarevic, overcoming Igor Andreev 1-6, 7-6
(6), 6-4, and Viktor Troicki overwhelming Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 6-1.
Germany took a 1-0 lead over Spain as Florian Mayer defeated
Marcel Granollers 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Fish recovered from losing the opening game against Golubev,
but immediately broke back and then broke a second time for the set. After
breaking to lead 2-0 in the second, he fought off three break points to hold
for 5-2 before breaking again for victory.
“I served well,” Fish said. “I got a lot of free points on
my serve. It (the court) is playing really slow, the balls are pretty heavy and
the court's just soft right now because of the rain, so to be able to get a few
free points off my serve was key.
“I felt I had a pretty nice feeling on my return games as
well. You know there are not many guys that are going to serve you off the
court on a court like this one here, so you're going to have your looks.”
Querrey served for victory against Kukushkin at 5-4 in the second set, but
failed for the second straight day to close out the match. On Monday he led
Sweden's Robin Soderling by a set and 5-3 before losing in three sets.
The US will play a doubles on Wednesday to decide the
outcome of the second of its round-robin ties.
Fish reached the doubles final in Rome last week, but
partner Andy Roddick was forced to default the match due to a right shoulder
injury. As a consequence, the ATP took the decision not to award the team prize
money as the losing finalists, but pay them for reaching only the semifinals.
“I
didn't think it was very fair,” Fish said. “I don't know why the rule is like
that. I'm sure there are smarter people than me that are making the rules (but)
it certainly doesn't seem fair. Of course we're going to appeal.”
