Fish ends Swiss hopes to keep Montreal bid on track

Mardy Fish ended Swiss hopes at the ATP Montreal Masters on Friday as the American ran away with the final set in a 6-3, 6-7 (8/10), 6-0 quarter-final defeat of Stanislas Wawrinka. The 14th seed followed countryman Roger Federer out of the event a day after the third seed lost to France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Wawrinka, who claimed Beijing Olympic doubles gold with his celebrated compatriot, rallied to win the second set in a tight tiebreaker but collapsed in the final set to hand over victory to sixth seed Fish in two hours, 21 minutes. The top American on the ATP tour will await a winner from seventh-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych and Serb Janko Tipsarevic. Fish won with six aces and a massive ten breaks of the Wawrinka serve. The victory continues a career success story for the 29-year-old Fish, who had never won a match at the event before this week. In fact, the world number eight American has been a stranger in Canada, playing here only in 2003 and 2008. Wawrinka had won three matches in a row this week for the first time since Roland Garros and was playing his second straight quarter-final after Gstaad at home on clay. Fish claimed their only previous meeting almost four years ago in New Haven. Fish was playing in his eighth season quarter-final and improved his 2011 record to 32-15 as he won ten of 11 matches on North American summer hardcourts He already owns a hard court title from Atlanta last month before playing the Los Angeles final where he was beaten by Ernests Gulbis while favouring a heel injury.