Resilient Roddick overcomes Ram

The top seed on Thursday stumbled badly in the second-set tiebreaker against fellow US player Rajeev Ram before pulling away to the second-round opening victory on the back of 15 aces and three breaks of serve.The win sets up a showdown with Belgian Xavier Malisse, a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Illya Marchenko of Ukraine.

Australian third seed Lleyton Hewitt was upset by Slovak number 76 Lukas Lacko.South African Kevin Anderson beat Donald Young 7-5, 6-3.Roddick won the last edition of Atlanta in 2001, beating Malisse for the trophy to claim the first of his 29 career titles.|

Bopanna-Vliegen win
Meanwhile, Rohan Bopanna and his partner Kristof Vliegen progressed to the doubles quarterfinals with a straight set 6-3, 6-4  win over Thailand’s Sanchai and Sonchat Ratiwatana.

Mankad-Brian in semis
Harsh Mankad and his American partner Brian Battistone extended their run at the Poznan ATP Challenger tournament to the semifinals after a hard earned 6-3, 5-7, 10-4 win over Argentine pair Martin Alund and Diego Junqueira.

They will next take on Daniel Munoz-De La Nava of Spain and Portugal’s Rui Machado, who stunned second seeds Tomasz Bednarek and Frank Moser 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) in their quarterfinals.