FLUSHING MEADOWS – There was a whisper in the crowd during the second set with Nicolai Davydenko leading, 6-4 7-6.
Do you have any twos? Threes?
“Go Fish!”
Mardy must have heard them because he came back down two sets to take the final three, 6-2 6-1 6-2.
“You swing just a little bit more freely when you are down like that,” Fish said. “I mean I was tight. I was nervous. I wasn’t playing well and he was. That’s why I was down two sets to love.”
This match is showing why Fish is a different player over the past few years. In the past he would have folded up and not come back. In fact, this was only the second time in his career he came back from 2-love to win, with the first being in Australia in 2010.
“It’s a big stage to win on, period, but to come back like that against a great player, he’s been to the semifinals twice here,” Fish said. “His results recently haven’t been where he played consistently. Maybe, that’s why I have been relying on a little but because he was playing great the first two sets.”
Fish should be more popular, but his laid back style keeps him under the radar. He’s like a cool surfer dude. Or like Fonzie, who is the definition of cool.
And that has hurt him in the past, since he didn’t have that killer instinct, but now it’s come out. Fish has a chance to go pretty far in this tournament and even though he’s ranked 23rd, he’s been in the Top 10 earlier this year, but injuries have hurt him and he took a dive down.
Yet, not it looks like he’s at full strength, trying to make some noise, and after Andy Roddick’s retirement, he will get noticed more.
Especially if he can pull off matches like this one.
“I got stronger and stronger,” he said. “I felt like he got more and more tired, was sort of playing at a pretty high end in the first couple of sets. I sort of tailed off. I felt like I was holding serve fine apart from the first set. Once I was able to get into his service game, really create havoc with his service game, he was going to struggle. That was the case.”
Go Fish!
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