Top seed Mardy Fish reached his first semi-final of the season with a 6-3 6-4 defeat of Belgian Xavier Malisse in a battle of veterans at the joint ATP/WTA Washington event on Friday.
The American has only been playing a month since recovering from a heart-scare with his irregular beat repaired through a medical procedure in May.
The world No.15 who broke through into the ATP top 10 in 2011 before sliding out, will play against good friend and fourth seed Tommy Haas after the 34-year-old German crushed compatriot Tobias Kamke 6-1 6-2 in 66 minutes.
Fish will also be playing in his first Washington semi after improving to 3-1 over Malisse, whom he last played six years ago.
“This is a nice first for me in Washington,” said the winner, who finished with 10 aces. “It’s good to go further than normal. I’m very comfortable here and the fast court suits my game. I also appreciate the hot weather.”
Fish earned the opening set after a break for 4-2, winning in 37 minutes after a somewhat nervous start. But once he had it in the bag, he loosened up and let Malisse, who admitted he might not have played at 100 per cent fitness, make most of the errors.
The 30-year-old American began the second set with a break and finished after 80 minutes on his first match point.
“I noticed that Xavier seemed injured, he didn’t move as well as usual,” said Fish. “I tried to exploit that and may have had more errors than usual, but it worked.”
Fish and Haas have not played since 2007, with the American standing 1-2 against the German.
“It will be a good match-up, very tough,” said Fish. “As we’ll surely play in the day, the weather may be a factor.
“He’s had good results recently and is playing some of his best tennis in a long time. He also has some of the most beautiful strokes you will ever see.”
Haas, who has moved from outside the top 200 to 36th, finished his rout over number 107 Kamke with four aces and never faced a break point on his own serve.
He now stands 22-9 on the season, 18 months after hip surgery and is looking to win his 14th career title.
