Furor » my way through a few more floo

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - American John Isner made short work of his third-round match Wednesday in the Winston-Salem Open, beating Kazakhstans Mikhail Kukushkin 6-1, 7-6 (7-3). Isner, the tournaments top seed and two-time champion, served 17 aces and needed just 68 minutes to oust the 13th-seeded Kukushkin in the final tuneup for next weeks U.S. Open. "It couldve gone a lot quicker," said Isner, who was born in nearby Greensboro, N.C. "I made it tough on myself, which Im not too pleased about because of how I was serving. Still, I played well at the end of the match and Im off in straight sets again, which is nice." The 6-foot-10 Isner broke Kukushkins serve twice and won nearly three-quarters of all points played in the first set, which he completed in just 18 minutes. However, Isner had a tougher time in the second set. While he served 12 aces, he also struggled to finish points against the smaller Kukushkin. "I was putting a lot of pressure on him, and doing the right things," Isner said. "But I got away from that a little bit. Of course, he changed his tactics up, and certainly played better in the second set. It got away from me there a little bit, but I played well at the end." Isner, 12-0 all-time in the tournament, will face seventh-seeded Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic in Thursdays semifinals. Rosol advanced with a 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory over 10th-seeded Pedro Andujar of Spain. Also advancing to the quarterfinals were American Sam Querrey, fifth-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain, Belgian qualifier David Goffin, Polands Jerzy Janowicz, ninth-seeded Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan and 14th-seeded Andreas Seppi of Italy. Querrey will play Garcia-Lopez in one quarterfinal match at the Wake Forest Tennis Center. The other pairings have Goffin facing Janowicz and Lu taking on Seppi. In earlier matches, Garcia-Lopez battled through a third-set tiebreaker before beating 11th-seeded Donald Young of the U.S. 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 7-6 (8-6). Garcia-Lopez overcame a 6-4 deficit in the third tiebreaker by winning four consecutive points to advance to an ATP tournament quarterfinal for the sixth time this year. "The last month in Europe on the clay courts, I was losing a lot of tiebreakers," said Garcia-Lopez, who won his third career ATP Tour title last April in Morocco. "But at the end today, I got lucky. Sometimes the tiebreaker is a lottery, and I got the number. Thats why I won." In other third-round matches, Querrey defeated second-seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa 7-6 (7-4), 6-4; Goffin extended his winning streak to 25 consecutive matches by beating 15th-seeded Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 6-4, 4-6, 6-4; Janowicz downed 12th-seeded Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France 4-6, 6-3, 6-4; Lu beat No. 8 seed Marcel Gransllers of Spain 6-1, 6-2; and Seppi defeated Frances Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 7-6 (9-7). Sean Kuraly Jersey . Tampa Bay Buccaneers RB Doug Martin broke the news that hes cleared for full activity moving forward. Bobby Orr Jersey . -- Marty Havlat scored three goals for the first time in nearly nine years, and the San Jose Sharks prevented Colorado from clinching the Central Division title with a 5-1 victory over the Avalanche on Friday night. http://www.cheapbruinsjerseys.com/?tag=a...am-oates-jersey. Yet coming off consecutive series losses at St. Louis and Pittsburgh, Los Angeles needed some sort of spark as August approaches. The Dodgers found it in the ballpark of their biggest rival, and left the Bay Area in first place following an emphatic three-game swing. Zdeno Chara Jersey . He was still a kid, going into his senior year of high school. Thursday, the point guard stood in front of a couple dozen members of the media and spoke with poise about how much hed grown since then, and how hes ready for the next level. Eddie Shore Jersey . It was my fifth straight year attending and, as always, there are many interesting matters discussed as it pertains to the use of statistics in sports.With some help from Mother Nature and the constant boost from my refrigeration system, we will be skating on our backyard rink in November for the first time EVER. Monday was a full work day. The liner was put down, the mat was plumbed and installed and the chiller unit was fired up for the first time this season. To build up the first layer of ice, I flooded multiple times on Day 1 - using a light spray to ensure each flood was completely freezing before repeating the process. Tuesday - for professional reasons beyond my control - was a write-off. But in between calls, texts and emails, we attacked the rink on Wednesday to bring the ice up to a nice base and ready for more aggressive flooding. Hampered by a head cold, I sneezed and wheezed my way through a few more floods late Wednesday night to make sure I would be on schedule too kick in to the finishing stage on Thursday.dddddddddddd. Now this stage requires some serious manual labour. It includes surrounding the rink frame with another run of 2 x 10s before installing the 4 x 8 boards below the netting in what has been transformed over the years into the "shooting zone." Once the boards have been installed, the flooding will resume - using mostly hot water to melt away imperfections. I will shave the problem areas with a heavy, razor-sharp scraper in between the hot-floods to give it a game ready finish. Im not going to lie, this has been a tough week. But working outdoors and watching how quickly the rink now comes together definitely has its therapeutic benefits. Check out a few photos in the gallery. More pics to come! Also, send over some of your pics on Twitter! ' ' '