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Fish extends golden run by sinking Isner in Atlanta

Andrey Golubev is ranked 82 in the world © Getty Images

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Mardy Fish extended his winning streak to ten matches by defeating John Isner in the final of the Atlanta Championships.

No. 6 seed Fish captured his second ATP title of the season by overcoming his compatriot 4-6 6-4 7-6(4) on home soil.

Isner - best-known for his marathon match with Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon this year - inflicted Fish's first dropped set of the tournament when he sealed the first.

But that setback served only to invigorate Fish, who can seldom have played better in his career than he he is at present. He defended his career unbeaten record against Isner by battling to the next two sets and eventually winning a near-three hour epic.

Andrey Golubev became the first player from Kazakhstan to win an ATP World Tour title, beating Jurgen Melzer to claim the German Open on Sunday.

Golubev, ranked No. 82 in the world, was playing in only the second final of his career, having lost his first in St. Petersburg back in 2008. If there were any lingering nerves, they made little difference to his game as Melzer was defeated 6-3 7-5.

The only previous meeting between the pair had come in a Challenger tournament, when Melzer won in straight sets, and it was the Austrian who entered as favourite in Germany. Ranked 67 places higher, Melzer has been in some of the best form of his career, recently reaching the Roland Garros semi-finals.

He was chasing his third career title against the Kazakhstan No. 2 but, like six of his previous eight final appearances, the script did not go according to plan. Golubev had beaten top seed Nikolay Davydenko earlier in the tournament, and he carried that form into the final.

A single break point was all it took for Golubev to claim the first set, deservedly so after he controlled the majority of the early exchanges. Neither man had dropped a set en route to the final, so Melzer was suddenly in unchartered territory.

The Austrian battled hard for a way back into the match during the latter half of the contest, creating five break chances, but he was unable to penetrate Golubev's steely defence. With a tie-breaker beckoning, Golubev took his third break opportunity of the set to clinch victory, earning a €228,000 cheque as he did so.

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