Mardy Fish has prolonged his career on the ATP Tour with victory over Marco Cecchinato in the first round of the US Open.

Earlier this month, Fish announced that this year's tournament at Flushing Meadows would be his last after suffering with health issues during the latter stages of his career, but the American delighted the New York crowd by prevailing in four sets on Monday.

After dropping the opener on a tie-break, Fish rallied to comfortably come through the rest of the encounter, breaking seven times on the way to a 6-7 6-3 6-1 6-3 triumph over the world number 106.

Fish, who was ranked at number seven in the world in 2011, will now face Feliciano Lopez after the Spaniard got the better of Nikoloz Basilashvili.