2008 COUNTRYWIDE CLASSIC AUGUST 4 – 10, 2008, UCLA CAMPUS, LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA – Day 3

It went from oh-so-close to not so close at all as Mardy Fish advanced to his first Countrywide Classic quarterfinal with a 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-0 victory over Vincent Spadea in an All-American second-round match Wednesday on a day filled with upsets at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.

Spadea simply seemed to run out of gas and couldn’t keep up with Fish’s serving game after the first set as the No. 6 seed let loose on 14 aces in the 1 hour, 51 minute match.

Fish’s good friend and the tournament’s top-seeded player Andy Roddick opens play Thursday night against lucky loser Dusan Vemic.

Two Spainards seeded No. 2 and 4 were shown the door as Germany’s Denis Gremelmayr upset fourth-seeded Feliciano Lopez, 7-5, 7-5. The 26-year-old Gremelmayr next meets Marat Safin in the quarterfinals.

Fernando Verdasco, the No. 2 seed, was the next to fall as he lost to Frenchman Florent Serra 6-2, 7-6 (4). Serra said he’s playing with confidence even after a tough loss to Rafael Nadal last week in Cincinnati where he fell 6-0, 6-1.

Serra admitted it’s easy to get intimidated when facing Nadal. “At least with Roger (Federer) he’s going to give you a couple of games,” said Serra, who also lost to the future No. 1 Nadal at the Australian Open, 6-0, 6-2, 6-2.

In other quarterfinal matches Thursday Andrea Stoppini faces Juan Martin Del Porto; Donald Young takes on Marc Gicquel and Carlos Moya plays Amer Delic.

For questions or comments email Steve at steve@tennisnews.com

Mardy Fish – USA