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Sports

Fish Falls in Farmers Classic Final

The No. 1 seed from Beverly Hills loses in an upset to an unseeded opponent.

All the cards seemed to be stacked against Ernests Gulbis heading into Sunday afternoon's singles final of the Farmers Classic at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on the UCLA campus.

The unseeded Latvian was facing top-seeded Mardy Fish, a Beverly Hills resident who came in riding a wave of confidence, having won his sixth ATP Tour title in Atlanta the week before.

The Fishheads, boisterous fans of the 29-year-old American, were out in full force to cheer their champion on and at first it seemed as if they'd leave Westwood in a partying mood.  

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The situation grew even more grim for Gulbis on Sunday after he double faulted to give Fish the first set 7-5. Instead of rolling over, however, Gulbis dug deep to break Fish for a 4-3 lead in the second set. After holding serve twice to level the match, Gulbis raced to leads of 4-1 and 5-2 in the third and final set, but Fish broke his opponent's serve and held his own to fire up the crowd and close to within 5-4. The Fishheads broke into a chant during the changeover, sensing victory.

Ranked No. 9 in the wrold standings, Fish got his chance, earning a break point, and had he converted it he would've squared the set at 5-5. Instead, Gulbis held on for a 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 victory in two hours, 43 minutes. It was an impressive run for the 22-year-old from Jurmala, Latvia, who won his second ATP Tour title and moved up to 55th in the rankings. He had to knock off three of the top six seeds—having already defeated No. 6 Xavier Malisse of Belgium in the opening round and No. 2 Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina in the semifinals.

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Gulbis captured his only other title at Delray Beach, Florida, last year and improved to 7-28 against Top 10 players.

Despite losing Sunday and dropping to 6-13 in finals, Fish moved up one spot to No. 8 in the latest ATP rankings with 2,550 points and remains the highest-rated American. He also maintained his lead in the Olympus U.S. Open Series with 115 points, 45 points ahead of second-place Gulbis. 

The No. 8 ranking matches the highest ranking of Fish's career. He first attained that position July 4. Serbia's Novak Djokovic is ranked No. 1 with 13,155 points, followed by Spaniard Rafael Nadal (11,270) and Switzerland's Roger Federer (9,530). Andy Roddick (2,110 points) is the second-highest U.S. player at No. 12.

In the earlier doubles final, Malisse and former UCLA player Mark Knowles, the No. 3-seeded duo, edged Somdev Devvarman of India and Trent Conrad Huey of the Philippines, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (10).

Knowles, a 39-year-old from the Bahamas, notched his 54th career doubles victory and moved into a tie for 16th on the all-time doubles titles list, joining Jonas Bjorkman, Brian Gottfried, Paul Haarhuis and Sherwood Stewart. Knowles played for the Bruins from 1990-92.

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