MASON, Ohio — Mardy Fish surprised even himself.
Fish opened the next-to-last tournament of his career with a convincing 6-2, 6-2 victory over 20th-ranked Viktor Troicki in the first round of the Western & Southern Open on Monday.
"I was a little surprised at my level," Fish said. "I hadn't practiced a ton or particularly well for a little while. I was struggling with my serve.
"A friend of mine came in a couple days and helped, but it was still sort of a struggle even yesterday to sort of find my serve and stuff. I was obviously real happy with the level."
Fish, a wild card who already has announced that the U.S. Open will be his last event before retiring, next faces second-ranked Andy Murray. It was Fish's first singles victory on tour since Aug. 18, 2013, against Evgeny Donskoy at Winston-Salem.
Two seeded players lost in the first round. Jerzy Janowicz surprised 14th-seeded Gael Monfils 6-4, 7-5, and Ivo Karlovic improved to 3-1 in his career against 10th-seeded Gilles Simon with a 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-3 win.
Venus Williams had to wait out a rain delay of more than 2 hours before beating Zarina Diyas 7-6 (6), 6-4.
In other men's action Monday, Joao Sousa defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-2, Bernard Tomic beat Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-4, 6-3, and Thomaz Bellucci topped Jiri Vesely 7-6 (5), 6-2.
Vasek Pospisil eased past Denis Kudla 6-4, 6-3 in a matchup of qualifiers, and Andreas Seppi knocked out Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 6-3.
In women's first-round play, Wimbledon quarterfinalist CoCo Vandeweghe cruised past qualifier Yulia Putintseva 7-5, 6-2. Jelena Jankovic advanced with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over Madison Brengle, and Karin Knapp defeated Ana Konjuh 7-5, 6-2.
Vandeweghe met Putintseva for the first time since May 2013, when Vandeweghe claimed on Twitter that Putintseva and her father insulted her after the match.
"The win speaks for itself," Vandeweghe said. "The scoreline speaks for itself. That's all I have to say."
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