Roddick was 18 years old when he won his first ATP title in Atlanta

Andy Roddick returned to action for the first time since Wimbledon with a win over fellow American Rajeev Ram at the Atlanta Tennis Championships.

The world number nine began the build-up to next month's US Open with a battling 6-1 6-7 (1-7) 6-3 victory.

Roddick goes on to face Xavier Malisse, who beat Illya Marchenko 6-3 6-3.

Atlanta is hosting an ATP World Tour event for the first time since 2001, when an 18-year-old Roddick beat Malisse to win his first title.

"The first game of the third, I was down a couple of break points," Roddick said. "If he breaks the first game of the third, I think it's a long way back because he started serving a little bit better in the second set. That was probably the pivotal moment in the match."

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Roddick is aiming for his 20th career tournament title on hard courts and third this year.

Third seed Lleyton Hewitt's title hopes ended with a 6-4 6-2 loss to Slovakia's Lukas Lacko.

Second seed John Isner needed 33 aces and two-and-a-half hours to beat Gilles Muller on Wednesday.

It was the American's first match since Wimbledon, where he beat Nicolas Mahut 70-68 in the fifth set of what was the longest match in tennis history at 11 hours and five minutes. Isner plays Michael Russell in Atlanta the quarter-finals on Friday.

"I didn't want to let the fans down," Isner said. "I didn't want to lose my first match here. I had a lot of friends and family here, so I didn't want to go out early.

"I felt I was shedding the rust off in the second and third sets, I will only keep getting better. This was one of the biggest wins of the year. I wanted to get matches under my belt before Washington and the two Masters 1000s."

In Hamburg, defending champion and world number six Nikolay Davydenko was beaten 6-4 6-4 by 82nd-ranked Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan.

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