Legg Mason, 3rd round: Malisse beats Isner

Washington: John Isner became the second highly-seeded American to fall in two days, losing to Xavier Malisse, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (5) in the third round of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic on Thursday.

Also, third-seeded Fernando Verdasco defeated American Ryan Sweeting, 6-4, 7-5, and Tomas Berdych beat Andrey Golubev, 6-3, 5-7, 7-5. The matches followed a 4½-hour weather delay after storms hit the metro area in the afternoon.

Malisse overcame 18 aces by Isner and took advantage of a number of mistakes by his 6-foot-9 opponent, who had won each of his seven previous tiebreaks at this event.