Isner moves on

Two-time defending champion John Isner ran his Atlanta Open winning streak to 10 matches Friday, riding his big serve to a 7-6 (4), 6-4 victory over Ricardis Berankis. The top-seeded Isner had 19 aces less than 24 hours after ripping off 33 in a two-set victory over Radek Stepanek. Isner will face training partner Denis Kudla today in his 34th ATP Tour semifinal. Kudla, a qualifier, beat Dudi Sela 7-5, 6-0 to reach his first ATP semifinal. In pushing his Atlanta record to 18-3, Isner reached his sixth consecutive Atlanta semifinal. The 6-foot10 former University of Georgia player’s serve peaked at 138 mph. Berankis, a Lithuanian ranked No.

87, also served well. He had 10 aces, and won 86 percent of his first serves (to Isner’s 84 percent), and 62 percent on seconds. The two pivot points were the first-set tiebreaker, where Isner served first and Berankis returned just two of six serves, and the only break of the match. That came in the second set. With Berankis serving at 1-1, he went to the net only to bump a backhand long and past an open court to cede the game. Isner is trying to reach the Atlanta final for the fifth time in six years. He lost in the finals in 2010 and 2011, fell in the 2012 semifinals to eventual champion Andy Roddick, and won the past two years.

Top- seeded Rafael Nadal advanced to the semifinals of the Hamburg Open by beating fifth-seeded Pablo Cuevas 6-3, 6-2 on Friday. Nadal’s semifinal opponent will be Andreas Seppi, who reached the last four without having to play. His opponent, Simone Bolleli, withdrew with a stomach ailment. Nadal is looking to extend his streak of having won at least one European clay-court title every year since 2004. The former top-ranked player has dropped to

No. 10 in the world. Qualifier Lucas Pouille upset Benoit Paire 6-3, 6-2 to set up a semifinal encounter against eighth-seeded and 2013 Hamburg winner Fabio Fognini, who beat Aljaz Bedene 6-4, 7-5. Pouille reached his second semifinal of the year by ending Paire’s seven-match winning run that included his maiden title in Bastad, Sweden.

Top-seeded David Goffin of Belgium advanced to the Swiss Open semifinals Friday, beating sixth-seeded Joao Sousa of Portugal 6-7 (7), 6-4, 7-6 (1). Goffin will face fifth-seeded Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil today in the clay-court tournament. Two- time Gstaad winner Bellucci beat fourth-seeded defending champion Pablo Andujar of Spain 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. In the other quarterfinals, second-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain topped eighth- seeded Santiago Giraldo of Colombia 7-6 (4), 6-4, and third-seeded Dominic Thiem of Austria outlasted seventh-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.

World No. 1 Serena Williams has withdrawn from the upcoming Bank of the West Classic because of an elbow injury she says must get “back to 100 percent.” The tournament announced her withdrawal Friday. It runs Monday through Aug. 9 at Stanford University. Williams expressed her disappointment and noted, “The tournament is one of my favorites and the fans have always been so generous and supportive of me.” Williams recently won her sixth Wimbledon championship, 21st Grand Slam singles title overall and fourth consecutive major event — the “Serena Slam” — and she also won four Slam events in a row in 2002-03. She will now look to chase a fifth consecutive at the U.S. Open in August. Fifthranked Caroline Wozniacki will make her Bank of the West Classic debut, as the tournament’s top seed.

Isner