Atlanta Open notes: Muller says injury helped his career

Gilles Muller said it may sound stupid, but injuries to patellar tendons in both knees in 2009 may have been the best thing that happened to him.

"When you don't have that long time off, you think tennis every day and you get tired off it," he said. "When you don't have it for seven months, you realize how much you love it. It helped me a lot."

Muller advanced to the finals of the BB&T Atlanta Open with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Go Soeda on Saturday.

The injuries forced him to miss the final six months of the 2009 season, including the U.S. Open. Unable to play he dropped more than 350 spots to a low of No. 459 in the ATP's rankings in February 2010. A former world No. 1 as a junior, Muller has worked his way back to No. 63 in the rankings that came out earlier this week and should advance higher after making his first final in seven years.

"Right now I'm trying to enjoy everything," he said. "I know at any second anything can stop everything."

Doubles

Ryan Harrison and Matthew Ebden defeated the top-seeded tandem of Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins 6-4, 6-4 to advance to the finals of the doubles portion of the BB&T Atlanta Open.

They will face either Atlanta's Donald Young and Raven Klaasen or Xavier Malisse and Michael Russell, who played the late match Saturday.

This will be the first final for Harrison and Ebden in their fourth partnership this year. This is the first partnership this year for Young and Klaasen.

The doubles championship will follow Sunday's 3 p.m. singles championship.

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For Hayes brothers, Georgia State-UGA exhibition a full-circle moment

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