Fish downs Tipsarevic to enter Montreal final

American Mardy Fish moved to within one victory of his second hardcourt title of the summer with a 6-3, 6-4 defeat of Serb Janko Tipsarevic on Saturday to reach the final of the ATP Montreal Masters.

The sixth seed, who won Atlanta in July and then played the final in Los Angeles a week later while suffering with a heel injury, will tackle world number one Novak Djokovic in Sunday's final.

Fish has burst into prominence this season after losing 20 kilograms following knee surgery in September, 2009, which streamlined both his body and his game.

The former fast food fanatic says he is now on a strict diet.

The regime has paid off with two titles in 2010 and hardcourt success in 2011 as he heads into the US Open with a Top-10 seeding as the leading American in the world, ranked eighth to the 12th of Andy Roddick.

Fish was the third different American since 2000 to reach the semi-finals in Canada, joining Roddick and Andre Agassi, both former champions.

Roddick, a 2009 semi-finalist, is the last player from south of the border to win a Canadian event, taking the title in 2003 while Fish has become the first American finalist since Agassi six years ago.

He made the final in just 76 minutes with six aces and three breaks of serve for his 33rd victory of the season against 15 losses.

"I'm obviously extremely pleased with the way I played," said Fish. "It felt like I had the upper hand for most of the match. Minus a small serving hiccup, I think I played very well.

"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."

Tipsarevic had defeated two seeds this week - number seven Tomas Berdych and number 15 Fernando Verdasco - but he was outclassed by Fish.

"I'm really not happy about the performance today," said the Serb. "I didn't feel tight before the match or like I didn't have a feeling that this is the match of my career or something like that.

"I was too much focused on fighting for every point rather than being focused on what I need to do on court. Even though I was nervous at some points, I felt I had a good fighting spirit.

"But the problem was that the ball was just not flying from my racquet. On the other hand, you had Mardy Fish, who played a great game from start to finish."

The American won the opening set in 36 minutes and then went up a break in the first game of the second.

Tipsarevic, a member of Serbia's Davis Cup championship side from last December, got the break back for 2-2 but lost serve again to trail 3-4 after a netted backhand brought on an angry racquet toss.

Fish stayed calm to serve it out on a second match point after Tipsarevic saved a first with a passing shot at the net.

Playing Djokovic, Fish will have a huge task after losing all six of his matches against the Serb who has won 52 of 53 matches played this season for eight ATP titles.