Mardy Fish Thrashes Nadal, Is Now A U.S. Open Favorite

First of all, what was wrong with Nadal’s backhand return of serve? It was terrible. Secondly, great win for Fihs, but this does not make him a leading contender to win the Open. He hasn’t gotten past a quarters in an Open so you can’t call him a leading contender. Cincy is a different ball game than USO as we saw last year when Fish made Cincy finals and then lost in third round of Open.

Fish did it – I thought it was a statement match. At this point, he does not have to win Cincy. I agree with others, beating Nadal in straights does not a U.S. open contender make. That said: would be great to see Fish go deep at US Open. All depends on what Fish brings. He’s got to roll in the early rounds in NYC and get better every match.

Scoop is right in that Fish is a threat – but he is still a dark horse (in my opinion) because he hasn’t done a major semifinal before. To his credit Fish is smart enough to acknowledge he hasn’t done it before and to believe, based on momentum, that he has a shot.

From Press Review after Gasquet Win:

Q. As prudent as it was for you to not play at Legg Mason, to pull out of Winston-Salem, was it harder to withdraw from those tournaments as an American in the summer series than it would have been if these tournaments were in Europe?
MARDY FISH: Yeah, I mean, look, you don’t want to — it’s a hard position to be in, because you felt badly either way. Look, I would feel badly if it was in Europe, too.
But I feel worse because I know Jeff Newman who’s the tournament director in Washington D.C., and I know Bill Oakes. I know them pretty well. Those are tournaments that I certainly want to be at, but I’m in a best-case scenario.
I entered a lot of things, as I said yesterday in this same room. I entered all the events because I knew I had a lot points to defend.
So when I started kind of picking the tournaments off one by one and started doing well and winning a lot of the matches and gaining points, you know, it’s just what happens. They came off my schedule.
I needed to point exactly to the US Open, because that’s the — I’ve done well here and I’ve done well in some of the US Open Series events, but I’ve only made the quarterfinals once. I would like to go further there. I want to put myself in the best position.

Q. After the US Open, what’s your schedule like?
MARDY FISH: Following the Open?

Q. Yeah.
MARDY FISH: I’ll play two events in Asia and two in Europe. Hopefully that last one at the end of year, too.

Scoop,

I think you make good comparisons with those players named, in fact, one could argue Fish is playing at a higher level than any of those other players. The one huge difference is none of those players beat players on the level of Djoko and Nadal and Murray. So Fish has his work cut out for him.

Again, Andrew, Ginepri made semis in a very weak field. Who’d he have to beat, Guillermo Coria? The top players today would chew up and spit out a Coria the way they do a Gilles Simon. Fish has a much more dangerous game than Blake did. Fish is more solid off the serve and backhand, a much better volleyer than Blake, and most importantly, he’s not self-imploding the way Blake always seemed to do. Also, what Fish has going for him is that he’s in amazing shape. Blake is fast and fit, but not to the degree Fish is now.

Scoop,

Way to go winning today. I played for a couple of hours in the morning–but at White Plains High School courts which are out in the open. I leave the court sopping wet, actually dripping on the hard courts.–so you must be a bit drained.

Fish played hard today, even taking a Boris Becker dive in the first set at net. But Murray was a touch better. Fish couldn’t hold serve or his first serve percentage up. He was broken three times alone in the second set after coming into the match having not been broken all week.

He sprayed a lot of backhands today surprisingly and Murray was dogged even though at times it looked like he might retire as he kept reaching for both his hammies. Murray was more aggressive with his serve and forehand and he said he’s been spending a lot more time on the court in preparation for the US OPen. I think Cahill said about Murray that he practices his serve alone for 30 minutes every practice with a lot of targets in the boxes.

I don’t think either player can win the Open. Obviously, Djoko is the big favorite although he seems to have come back to the pack a bit this summer with the close match with Fish in Canada and then losing a set to Monfils. Nadal has had a subpar summer, taking it on the chin at Wimby, losing to Dodig and then almost Verdasco and then getting clubbed by Fish.

To me, Fish is not a good enough athlete to win a slam unless everything broke just right. There’s the five set question, he’s never been a good long match warrior. And then there’s the fact that while he’s fit and mentally strong, he doesn’t do anything exceptional on the court except hit his backhand, and that shot can get iffy too.

But most importantly, look at what he said after losing to Murray: “It will be much different for me this time, in a good way,” Fish said. “I hope to keep playing the way I’m playing. I’m right there. I played good all week. Just trying to solidify my spot, show that I belong, convince myself that I belong as well.”

If Fish needs convincing at this point that he belongs, he’s not winning a US Open. You think Djoko, Nadal, Fed, even Berdych, Tsonga or Murray thinks they need convincing they belong? Not likely. If there’s any doubt it will show up in the biggest moment and create doubt.

And you know, playing the 35’s in the East at a high level, doubt will get you every time. I think Fish is solid, he’s game, he’s confident, but that’s not enough to win or even semi at the Open in this field.

As for Andy Murray – Murray is a threat to win. He’s too talented not to go deep.

Delpo/Fish/Federer/Djokovic/Nadal/Ferrer/Murray can’t all be US Open finalists this year.

That means the players who are ready will probably get the job done. Fish can make it. Federer may lose early. Djokovic will make it. Nadal and Delpo may lose early too.

So maybe we’re looking at a Fish / Ferrer / Djokovic / Murray semifinal at US Open. I know it sounds unlikely, but Federer and Nadal and Del Po are not playing top 4 hardcourt ball.

Why no semifinals for Ferrer? He made semis at Australian Open this year and has a US Open semis on his resume. As much as a want to pick on him, Ferrer is Spain’s 2nd best player and he proves it more often than any player from the U.S., no matter their ranking in country.

Michael,

You’re not entirely right here in your assertion that Cincy is little more than a warmup for the USO and not a precursor for how the Open may play out.

Federer won Cincy in 2005 and 2007 when he also won the Open and he won Cincy in 2009 when he lost in the Open finals to Del Po. So since Fed has gone down meekly in Cincy the last two years, and lost in the semis of the Open last year–at least in Fed’s case, his success at Cincy has coincided with his success at the Open.

I think a player who gets too sucked into Cincy and suffers an injury, the way Djoko, Murray and Fish all seemed to have felt in Cincy, that could lead to a poor showing at the Open. But you don’t see any hobos winning Cincy. It’s always the top players. It’s not like Indy Wells, where a guy like Luby won last year.

To Dan’s point, Fed’s success (or lack thereof) in Cincy has actually not always corresponded to his US Open performance. He won the Open in 2008 after bombing out of both Canada and Cincy, but lost in both 2009 and 2010, years in which he won Cincy.

I wasn’t surprised that both Fish and Djoker lost their matches. In fact, I was hoping that Fish would lose the semis against Murray, so he could do well in the Open. This match will not impact Mardy’s performance in the US Open.

It depends on the draw, but with the way he plays and competes, I see a great chance for Mardy to reach semis or even finals. With enough belief he can beat anyone right now. He was so close to beating ‘hot’ and fit Novak in Montreal. He made some tactical errors in the big points. His game is better than anyone at the moment. It’s his mind that has to be on his side now to win the big moments against the top four.

I also predicted a win yesterday for Murray considering the fact that Djoker was a toast coming into the finals.

I don’t believe that shoulder had anything to do with Djokovic’s quitting. To me it appeared to be the same old exhaustion due to heat and non-stop tennis for the last two weeks. Of course, it would be pretty bad to retire citing fatigue, so you need something more and hence the shoulder. He needs a MRI just like Nadal needed one during Wimbledon. Yeah, right! Ask Fish how much ready Nadal was for that QF match.

Djoker didn’t want to give a win to Murray. He will be ready for US Open and if he is not tired, then he has a great chance to win it.

I wonder what Dan would have said had Federer quit during matches like Rafa or Djokovic. I guess, Federer gave no room for anything of that sort. He always played like a man whether he won or lost. A mark of a true champion!

Hate to be so anal all the time, but Fed actually only lost the first set 6-2. In the second, he went down in a tiebreak, and ultimately won more games than Nadal did against Fish. Nadal certainly “battled” more, but that was more reflective of his own poor play rather than his opposition.

I like Fish and I like his game and mirracles do happen.

But favourite to win U.S.Open???? Wow, no way…

BTW, Gans … word!

As I said, things do happen. And Fish can (maybe 🙂 win as did Francesca.

And from now on every much with the result 2 and 3 (or worse) will be called tanking 😉