Fish sets up third straight final with Montreal success

By Bill Scott Aug 13, 2011, 22:25 GMT

Montreal - Mardy Fish reached his third ATP final in as many events on Saturday as the American sixth seed defeated Serb Janko Tipsarevic 6-3, 6-4 to earn a shot at the Montreal Masters title.

The top American on the ATP ranked eighth, will play the winner from a match between world number one Novak Djokovic and French 13th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who defeated two-time winner Roger Federer in the third round.

Fish has been swimming with the tide on summer cement in the US Open run-up after winning the Atlanta trophy a month ago and playing the ensuing Los Angeles final against Latvian Ernests Gulbis.

The 29-year-old skipped the Washington ATP stop last week to rest a heel injury and has exceeded all of his expectations in Canada, where he has only played - and lost - twice before.

Fish won two titles in summer 2010 and is looking for more success this season. He will head to the Open in just over a fortnight as the top American with good friend Andy Roddick trailing second on 12th.

Fish becomes the first from his country to play a Canadian final since Andre Agassi in 2005. Agassi and Roddick both won trophies in Canada.

'It's been a great week. Obviously it's been well documented that I haven't been here and haven't done well at all in this tournament. It's a dream come true,' said Fish.

'I knew this week was a good opportunity. I didn't even get into the tournament last year - I was not even in the main draw and didn't come.

'It was a pleasant surprise to get here and see how fast the surface was.'

The winner needed 76 minutes to claim victory, earning three breaks of serve and sending over six aces.

Serbian Davis Cup player Tipsarevic had beaten seventh seed Tomas Berdych and Spain's number 15 Fernando Verdasco this week on his way into the final four.

Fish took the first set in just over half an hours and went up a quick break in the second only to lose it for 2-2.

But the American seed got it back for a 4-3 margin and served out victory on his second match point, a netted backhand from Tipsarevic.

Fish improved to 33-15 on the season.